PUBLIC SERVICES

INTERNATIONAL
The global union federation of workers in public services

DIGITALIZATION
ENGLISH

AND PUBLIC SERVICES:

A LABOUR PERSPECTIVE

Report prepared by
Eckhard Voss and Raquel Rego
September 2019
 Digitalization and Public Services:
A Labour Perspective
This report was commissioned by PSI to Eckhard Voss1, Wilke Maack GmbH in
Hamburg and Raquel Rego2, University of Lisbon in September 2019
[Manuscript completed in May/June 2019]
© Public Services International September 2019

© all pictures Shutterstock collection 2019

2 PUBLIC SERVICES INTERNATIONAL

 ©José Camó

Foreword

T
he report “Digitalisation and Public Services: a labour perspective” provides
a global overview and policy guidance for public services unions to ensure
digitalisation lives up to its promise to enhance public service quality, effec-
tiveness and accessibility for users, while improving working conditions and creating
decent employment opportunities.

It looks at the shapes digitalization is taking in different public service sectors world-
wide; how it affects delivery, quality and access; employment, working conditions
and labour rights; what public service trade unions are doing about it; and what reg-
ulatory and governance considerations can be drawn from this review.

The research is based on the review of all main PSI sectors and on an interview
sample of 20 public service trade unions representatives from all continents. The
findings show that much of the impact of digital technologies on public services
depends on how these are regulated and used, and on whether workers and their
unions have a say or not on their development and introduction at the workplace.
It was commissioned by PSI with the support of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES),
and elaborated by Eckhard Voss, Wilke Maack GmbH in Hamburg and Raquel Rego,
University of Lisbon.

DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A LABOUR PERSPECTIVE 3

 It finds that digital technologies can improve public service quality and access and
contribute to democratic accountability and citizens’ trust in public institutions,
while advancing workers’ occupational health and safety (OSH). At the same time, it
shows those same technologies can open the door to public service privatization,
create a dangerous dependency of public institutions on private digital technology
providers, and deepen inequalities among public service users.

The review concludes that:

zz The introduction of digital technologies in public services is frequently driven by

private corporate interests

zz Corporate-led digitalisation is regularly associated with major public service user

and data privacy abuse, resulting in a worsening of public service quality and
efficiency

zz Cost-cutting driven digitalisation tends to replace and slash public service

jobs. It often uses new technologies for worker surveillance and performance
monitoring, increases working time and extends job tasks

zz It is urgent to establish an adequate regulatory framework for the introduction

and use of digital technologies in public services and their workplaces. Such
regulation must be developed in close dialogue with public services workers and
their trade unions through meaningful participation, information and consultation,
and by negotiating relevant wording in collective agreements.

Digitalisation and artificial intelligence are changing the way public services func-
tion for both users and public service workers. The way governments deal with the
digitalisation process will influence those changes. Their actions will have negative
outcomes if governments see digitalisation as a way to outsource functions, further
abdicating their responsibilities and power. On the other hand, positive results could
flow from governments leading the digitalisation process, defining rules, setting lim-
its and implementing control procedures that can improve working conditions for
public employees and make services more responsive and accessible for users.

Rosa Pavanelli
General Secretary
Public Services International

4 PUBLIC SERVICES INTERNATIONAL

Contents
Foreword 3
Executive Summary 6
Digitalization Glossary 11
List of Acronyms 16

INTRODUCTION 17

1 DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A SECTOR-SPECIFIC OVERVIEW 24

1.1 Context and drivers 24

1.2 Central government 25
1.3 Local and regional government 30
1.4 Public utilities 34
1.5 Health and Social Services 37
1.6 Education and culture services 41
1.7 Security, border and emergency services 42

2 IMPACT OF DIGITALIZATION ON PUBLIC SERVICES QUALITY,

EFFICIENCY AND ACCESS 46

2.1 Disentangling myth, ideology and reality 46

2.2 Impact on public service access and on the relationship
between public services, citizens and users 48
2.3 Impact on privacy and security issues 49
2.4 Impact on efficiency and quality 50
2.5 Impact on public finances 52

3 IMPACT OF DIGITALIZATION ON PUBLIC SERVICE EMPLOYMENT

AND WORKING CONDITIONS 54

3.1 Impacts on employment 54

3.2 Impact on working conditions: The overall picture 56
3.3 Skills and competence requirements 58
3.4 Occupational health and safety 60
3.5 Working time and work-life balance 61
3.6 Work monitoring and surveillance 63
3.7 Impact on existing and new inequalities in the labour market and workforce 64
3.8 ‘Digital Taylorism’: Emergence of precarious forms of employment 66

4 TRADE UNIONS AND PUBLIC SERVICE DIGITALIZATION 68

4.1 Involvement in digitalization-related public policies 70

4.2 Anticipation and managing of digital change and restructuring 73
4.3 Collective agreements setting frameworks for socially just digitalisation 73
4.4 Trade union guides and model collective bargaining agreements 75
4.5 Regulating the impact of digitalization on occupational health and safety 76
4.6 Local level bargaining and direct workers involvement 78
4.7 Shaping and regulating working time, telework and work-life balance 79
4.8 The right to training and qualification 80
4.9 Impact of digitalization on workers and trade union rights 82

5 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 84

References 88
Annex: Trade unions participating in the study 92

DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A LABOUR PERSPECTIVE 5

 Executive Summary
1. This report was commissioned by PSI. In ad-
dition to an extensive literature review, the
study finds its main sources in interviews and
information gathered from trade union repre-
sentatives from PSI-affiliated organizations
in different public service sectors around
the world, including in Africa (Burkina Faso,
Morocco), Asia (South Korea, Singapore,
India), North America (Canada, United States),
South America (Argentina, Brazil) and Europe
(Denmark, France, Germany, Norway, Spain,
and the United Kingdom). The interviewees
represent a wide range of public services from
central administration and local and regional
government to health and care services, hos-
pitals, utilities, police, emergency services
and education and cultural services.
2. It focusses on research questions that so far
remain largely unanswered by current litera-
ture. These questions pertain to the introduc-
tion of digital technologies across different
public sector service branches and the moti-
vations that underpin it (1), but also to the im-
pact of public service digitalisation on service
quality, effectiveness as well as access to pub-
lic services (2). The report then addresses the
impact of digital technologies and digitalised
workplaces and work environments on public
service employment and working conditions
(3) and how trade unions have addressed
these issues by own activities, within social
dialogue and by collective bargaining (4). The
analysis concludes with highlighting key re-
sults as regards the governance systems and
regulatory tools that exist (or need to be de-
veloped) in order to secure the protection and
interests of public service users and workers in
the context of service digitalisation (5).
3. A large body of literature has already been
published on digitalisation, the impact of new
technologies on the world of work and the in-
troduction of new technologies and related
6 PUBLIC SERVICES INTERNATIONAL
forms of work organization—including in gov-
ernment and public services. Public service
digitalisation is being actively promoted and
fostered by international organisations such
as the United Nations (UN), the Organization
for Economic Cooperation and Development
(OECD) or the EU Commission to increase ef-
ficiency and improve the quality and accessi-
bility of public services. According to the pro-
ponents of public service digitalisation, digital
technologies and automation would also im-
prove workers’ working conditions, reduce
health and safety risks and improve their work-
life balance.
4. However, there are good reasons to doubt
digitalisation being a win-win recipe for all
public services. Evidence suggests that often
the introduction of digital technologies and au-
tomation is mainly being driven by a will to in-
crease productivity and work intensity as well
as cutting jobs. Evidence shows that the pro-
vision of digital know-how, in both hardware
and software, increases the pressure placed
on public authorities to outsource essential
activities, including those related to critical
infrastructure. Furthermore, it is proven that
while digitalisation and the increased use of
digital devices can have positive effects on
working conditions, they may also be used to
monitor worker performance and behaviour, to
intensify and compress work processes and
surveillance, and to extend working time or at
least availability.
5. Digitalisation goes beyond past waves of
technology-driven change: The digitalisation
of public services does not only concern the
introduction and application of new technol-
ogies and tools such as sensors, smart de-
vices, chatbots, cloud computing, data ana-
lytics, smartphone apps, machine learning,
artificial intelligence or blockchain technolo-
gy. More importantly, it concerns the far more
 wide-ranging impact these technologies have
on the way public services are provided, the
relations between public services and citizens,
and the type of labour needed. Since they
are often developed, provided and owned by
global tech companies such as Google, Apple
or Microsoft, they also change the power rela-
tionship between public and private actors in
the delivery and control of public services.
6. In central government and administration, the
study shows that e-government and ‘digital
first’ approaches in public services and admin-
istration are strongly promoted by internation-
al organisations such as the UN or the World
Bank as the one and only path for government
modernisation. Digitalisation of central gov-
ernment function can have positive effects, as
was highlighted by trade union representatives
in Brazil where newly digitalised public servic-
es such as online scheduling, online tax col-
lection and e-processes in court have brought
benefits to users in terms of public service ef-
ficiency and quality.
7. Large ‘smart government’ programmes—such
as those implemented in Singapore, the intro-
duction of digital identities and land registra-
tion in India, or tax payment practices based
on blockchain technologies in Denmark—show
that digitalisation in central government and
public administration is a global trend and is
being actively promoted by large multinational
tech companies, whose key role as ‘enablers’
goes far beyond the basic function of deliver-
ing hardware and software. Public sector trade
unions in the United States or Canada critically
noted that the digitalisation of government and
administration provides a huge opportunity for
data gathering and use for large private tech
companies. Technological dependency on big
data corporations is problematic because pub-
lic administrations often lack the resources to
hire suitably qualified IT specialists and skilled
DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A LABOUR PERSPECTIVE
professionals to develop and manage digi-
tal-service technology, which further increas-
es their overreliance on large private compa-
nies. The result is that governments have, for
example, deployed Artificial Intelligence (AI)
technologies and services by contracting pri-
vate companies and remained dependent on
them, creating additional risks regarding the
sharing of citizens’ data with business actors.
8. This state of dependency is also an issue in
local and regional governments where the
‘Smart City’ concept has emerged, ushering
in the use of a variety of new, digital technol-
ogies such as data gathering and exchange
and ‘digital first’ approaches in local public
services, and thereby shaping new forms of
interaction between public services and us-
ers/citizens. Evidence drawn from Smart City
programmes in developing countries shows
that underneath the glossy promise of making
cities clean and “intelligent”, Smart City pro-
grammes are principally a tool to attract foreign
direct investment for technology-driven PPPs
and privatisation in local public services. Few
Smart City programmes are oriented towards
improving public service access, addressing
inequality and citizens’ needs, or redefining
data as common goods rather than a private
commodity.
9. Data gathering and analytics have also become
key drivers of digitalisation in the utilities sec-
tor, namely in water provision. Here digitalisa-
tion is increasingly affecting the way in which
public utilities are modernised and managed.
Technologies such as the Internet of Things,
smart grids, predictive maintenance or smart
metering are not only having an impact on how
utilities are managed but are also transforming
providers by changing their relations with us-
ers, the role of suppliers and the involvement
of digital companies as essential parts of ser-
vice provision. The utilities sector presents
7
 significant technological gaps and increasing
access inequality for new digital services and
tools. The case of Argentina illustrates these
gaps within a country: while smart electricity
meters are in use and bitcoins have become
a valid payment method for public transporta-
tion nationwide, in some regions, horses are
still used by many citizens as a means of local
transport.
10. The ambiguity of the impacts of digitalisation
is very clear in health and social services and
in education services. New digital technol-
ogies such as e-health or e-medicine, digital
patient management, remote learning and dig-
ital medical devices can help and support doc-
tors, nurses, teachers and administrative staff
in the delivery of health and social services
and have the potential to provide added value
for patients, students and workers who need
to update their skills and knowledge. Digital
tools and technologies can also improve ser-
vice access and enhance service provision
in remote or rural areas. However, according
to evidence from the United Kingdom, South
Korea or the United States, digitalisation and
automation are often used to reduce the hu-
man factor and headcount in these same la-
bour-intensive public service sectors.
11. The increasing role and influence of powerful
tech companies over public service digital-
isation emerges as a constant across all sur-
veyed regions. This is also the case of digital
technologies and artificial intelligence pro-
grammes used in security services, police
or emergency services. This raises questions
not only about the dependence created be-
tween these vital services and private corpo-
rate actors, but also about their cost-benefit
ratio, personal data protection, civil rights and
behaviour surveillance and monitoring.
8 PUBLIC SERVICES INTERNATIONAL
12. As regards the impact of digitalisation on pub-
lic services quality, efficiency and access,
the study has found that digitalisation is sig-
nificantly changing the content of public ser-
vices and the way they are delivered, but not
necessarily for the better. Interviewed union
representatives expressed concern that, while
new technologies can bring improvements
to the quality, efficiency and accessibility of
public services, this ideal scenario is far from
automatic and requires specific regulation and
social framework conditions geared towards
making digitalisation work for the common
good rather than private gains.
13. In the case of service accessibility, the ‘digital
first’ principle is self-contradictory when large
parts of a country’s population have no access
to the Internet and digital devices or are not
IT literate. The elderly, people with disabilities,
low-skilled workers and low-income groups
are most likely not to see their access to pub-
lic services enhanced as a result of their dig-
italisation. UK public service unions reported
that in Britain 9 million citizens are practically
excluded from digitalised services. In develop-
ing countries, access to digitalised public ser-
vices is even more challenging as large shares
of the population are unable to participate in
the ongoing processes of digital change.
14. The ‘digital first’ approach, coupled with the
outsourcing of digital systems development
and the privatization of certain government
functions also poses a threat to the data se-
curity, privacy and protection of users and
citizens as well as public service workers.
Interviewed unions emphasised the urgent
need to rethink the design and objectives of
public service digitalisation and adapt regula-
tory frameworks in order to effectively tackle
the new risks it poses.
15. Digitalisation also has a significant impact
on public finances and public service budg-
ets. While some of the implications are direct,
others are less immediately visible. The intro-
duction of new technologies and processes
to public services can represent a significant
investment in infrastructure, tools and exper-
tise (often brought in from external suppliers or
via PPPs). Public sector unions in Canada and
Germany highlighted that the outsourcing of
certain activities, the leasing and maintenance
of digital devices and the cost of licences or
data security services are resulting in signifi-
cant direct and indirect costs. These costs are
often underestimated, as is the investment
needed to train and develop the skills and
competences of public sector workers when
such new technologies are introduced.
16. However, this is not the only way in which
digitalisation is impacting public budgets and
income. The emergence of new forms of dig-
ital-based employment, such as digitally-me-
diated service work and online platform work
also play a significant role. Indeed, working
conditions in such digitally mediated and man-
aged employment are often precarious and
low-paid. Workers tend to be “self-employed”,
which means that, even in cases where they
are completely dependent on or fully availa-
ble to the digital platform provider employing
them, said platform does not pay any form
of social security contribution into the social
insurance system for their work. In addition,
global tech corporations have developed so-
phisticated systems of corporate tax avoid-
ance that starve public finances.
17. Digitalisation is also affecting employment and
working conditions. The situation of private
sector service workers, such as highly quali-
fied IT specialists and managerial staff in high
DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A LABOUR PERSPECTIVE
tech companies, engineering and consultancy
services, who are benefitting from job crea-
tion and rising income levels, contrasts sharp-
ly with that of public service workers. As far
as public service employment is concerned,
interviewed public sector unions highlight-
ed significant negative effects. One of these
effects is the substitution of tasks and jobs
that can easily be automated such as admin-
istrative work, invoicing and the handling of
standard cases. Digitalisation and automation
too often result in work intensification or high-
er stress levels. Furthermore, the spread of
digitally mediated and platform work in public
services, especially the health and care sec-
tor, are transforming employment relationship
patterns at the expense of employees, who
are often pushed to go into so-called ‘bogus’
self-employment or contracted under precari-
ous conditions.
18. The study shows that public service unions
are not against digitalisation, quite the oppo-
site, as long as it serves public interest. The
unions clearly acknowledge that these tech-
nologies can be beneficial to public service
users and workers, for example by enabling
social care workers to optimise their routes
and spend more quality time caring for pa-
tients. Mobile devices and tracking software
can also improve the safety of police officers
and social workers when they find themselves
in dangerous situations at work. However, the
same technologies can also be used to con-
stantly monitor employee performance and
behaviour, to increase their pace of work and
to limit pay only to the time spent with service
users.
19. The study also shows that public service trade
unions from all continents are actively engag-
ing and taking initiatives in order to address
9
 the challenges arising from the introduction
of digitalisation and shape a just digital tran-
sition in public services.
20. Trade unions are voicing their positions and
demands with regard to top-down, govern-
ment-led digitalisation programmes in all
major public service sectors and especially
in health and social care, education, public
utilities and local and regional government
services.
21. Some unions have included digitalisation-re-
lated issues in their collective bargaining
agendas at all possible levels, negotiating
bipartite, tripartite and cross-sectoral agree-
ments, as well as regional, municipal and
workplace-based collective agreements to in-
fluence and shape the management of digital
change processes in public services.
22. In some cases trade unions have succeed-
ed in securing and placing value on workers’
representation and participation as ‘digital
change agents’ (e.g. Denmark or Norway). In
other cases (e.g. United States, Germany or
Italy) they have negotiated on the subject of
digitalised work and employment conditions,
such as ‘telework’, ‘flexible’ and ‘smart’ digi-
tal work, and thereby have asserted the ‘right
to disconnect’ for public and private service
workers as guaranteed by national legislation
in France and Italy.
23. Trade unions are also making a critical contri-
bution to a better understanding of the health
and safety risks associated with digitalized
public service workplaces. They are support-
ing workers through guidelines, model work-
place and framework agreements at company
and sector level (e.g. UK, US or Germany) and
the negotiation of new and extended rights to
training (e.g. Singapore).
10
24. More recently, trade unions such as the SPFQ
trade union from Quebec, Canada or HK
Kommunal in Denmark have initiated their own
research projects or developed their own ex-
pertise as regards the application of machine
learning, process automation and artificial
intelligence in public service processes and
decision-making.
25. Beyond public services, the report has shown
that public service trade unions are also key
actors in shaping the debate about the over-
all future of work, including the need to adapt
the concept of employment and employment
contractual relationships to the new forms of
interaction that have arisen between work-
ers, online platforms and other types of digi-
tal-based intermediaries.
26. Finally, public service unions are actively in-
volved and often the ones to initiate public
civic debate in their workplaces, communities
and countries on core questions surrounding
the future of public services, as well as their
role and contribution to democracy, equality,
the common interest and investment in criti-
cal services and infrastructures for all, not for
the few.
27. The report clearly shows that, in the countries
and sectors where strong, organised work-
ers’ representation exists and enjoys a power-
ful voice, it plays an important, positive role
in prompting and shaping the policies and
regulation needed to accompany the public
service digitalisation process. Furthermore,
countries and sectors in which trade unions
were allowed to freely exercise their role and
were involved and valued in the process from
the beginning achieved better results in ensur-
ing a more socially just digital transition for
public service workers and users alike. q
PUBLIC SERVICES INTERNATIONAL
 Digitalisation Glossary

Term Explanation
“Privacy by design” Privacy by design or privacy by default means that appropriate software and hardware is
and “privacy by designed and developed in such a way that relevant data protection measures are taken
default” into account from the outset. The technology design is geared towards respecting data
protection requirements in all areas. The European General Data Protection Regulation
(GDPR), which entered into force in May 2018, mandates that “privacy by design” is
compulsory for all companies with users in the EU.
Agile Work Initially developed by IT experts with the aim of defining new ways of developing software
with greater responsiveness to changing user needs. From this collaboration the ‘Agile
Manifesto’ emerged, which put a focus on collaboration between self-organised cross-
functional teams and their customers. Since then the ‘agile’ method of project and
team work has spread to organisations of all types and sizes. Today, ‘agile’ is a business
buzzword in management theory. It is linked to project management software such as
Scrum or Kanban and the promise of doing things better, faster and more effectively
than traditional teamwork-based processes.
Algorithm In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm is a step-by-step instruction to solve
a problem or carry out a task. Algorithms can process data and perform calculations,
automated reasoning and other tasks. For example, they make it possible for navigation
software to find the shortest way from A to B. Algorithms are also important in
selecting individualised adverts, promotions or other suggested content that we
receive when using programmes such as Google, Facebook or Instagram. Algorithms
are also increasingly being used in the world of work, namely in HR and recruitment
for screening purpose and for providing suggestions as to which candidates might best
match a position in an organisation.
Artificial An area of computer science that emphasizes the creation of intelligent machines that
Intelligence (AI) work and react like humans. The use of artificial intelligence is present in all areas of
everyday life, from national language processing (Siri, Alexa) to online  chatbots or HR
software that supports decision making when hiring and firing employees. According
to the U.S. IT Magazine VERGE, in Summer 2019, 300 Amazon employees in Baltimore
were dismissed because they did not match productivity targets. Both the productivity
targets and the identification of the employees were done by AI.
Big Data (Analytics) Data volumes that are too large, too complex, too fast moving or too weakly structured
to be evaluated with manual and conventional methods of data processing.
Biometric data Biometrics is the science of body measurement of living beings. Biometric data is
known to be fingerprint, facial or iris characteristics, but can also relate to behavioural
characteristics such as writing behaviour, lip movement or voice.
Bitcoin (or “Crypto Bitcoin is a digital currency or virtual money. There are no physical coins or banknotes in
currency”) this payment system. The fundamental difference between crypto currencies like Bitcoin
and conventional money is that the digital means of payment function completely
independently from banks or states. Bitcoin transactions are completely anonymous
and decentralised and do not require the intervention of an additional authority, such
as a bank, between the partners involved. Thus they are beyond the control of the state.
In addition, the true identity of both actors remains hidden, since only the account
balances and Bitcoin addresses used for transactions are visible to the public. Whether
“digital” coins have the potential to become an alternative currency, however, will only
become clear in the future, as the focus has been drawn to the speculation function
rather than the online payment function, as the significant current Bitcoin hype proves.

DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A LABOUR PERSPECTIVE 11

 Term Explanation
Blockchain A blockchain is a database or ledger that consists of a chain of data blocks. This
chain is constantly extended by new blocks in which transactions are stored. The
principle can be compared to an accountant who, on a daily basis, writes all transfers
in a network down on a sheet of paper and staples it into a large folder in the
evening. The sheet of paper would be the data block, the folder the block chain. In
a blockchain, all participants receive a copy of the updated block chain. Thus, since
there are as many copies as there are users, the information in the blockchain is stored
on thousands of computers around the globe. This makes it virtually forgery-proof
compared to conventional, central databases. What information is stored in the data
blocks and how it is used does not matter, be it Bitcoins, supply chain data, freight
books, e-government data, medical records, power-grid management data, border
control, or public utility data such garbage disposal, urban public transport passenger
data. Blockchain technology currently is actively promoted by innumerable software
companies throughout the world, but in particular in China and other Asian countries.
Chatbot / bot A chatbot (or simply ‘bot’) is a text-based dialogue system that allows one to chat
with a machine. It has a dedicated area for text input and output, through which it is
possible to communicate in natural language with the machine system behind it. Due
to increasing computer power, chatbot systems can access more extensive data faster
and therefore offer the user intelligent dialogue. Such systems are also referred to as
virtual personal assistants. Prominent examples are the Google Assistant or Amazon’s
Alexa.
Cloud computing IT infrastructure that is made available via the Internet. It is a business service that
usually includes storage space, computing power or application software. In technical
terms, cloud computing describes the approach of making IT infrastructures available
via a computer network without having them installed on the local computer. The
largest cloud computing suppliers are Microsoft, Amazon, Salesforce, SAP and IBM
that have developed cloud computing as a new and increasingly important field of
business (e.g. Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service, Software as a Service).
Collaborative A collaborative robot (Cobot) is an industrial robot that works together with human
robotics (Cobot) workers.
Crowdsourcing Crowdsourcing is the outsourcing of tasks or projects from a company to a group of
internet users. The term crowdsourcing is made up of the words outsourcing and crowd.
However, crowdsourcing does not mean the outsourcing of corporate tasks to third
parties, but rather the outsourcing of tasks to a crowd of people, usually freelancers
or smaller companies. Companies mainly outsource tasks to a large global crowd of
workers in order to avoid direct labour contracts, which would include social security
contribution obligations, and stimulate cost-competition between crowdworkers. See
also  Crowdworkers
Crowdworkers Crowdworkers are people who accept work orders that are made available to a large
number of internet users (crowd). The orders are usually offered via internet platforms
(so-called crowdsourcing platforms) and, depending on the order/project, processed
by one or more crowdworkers. Very different types of crowdwork exist, such as local
services such as private cleaning, gardening or homecare services as well as IT- or
Platform-based crowdwork for freelancers in the field of journalism, media or design
where crowdworkers compete globally. See also  Gig Economy
Crypto currency See  Bitcoin
Cyberattack An attempt by hackers to damage or destroy a computer network or system. Larger
cyberattacks that gained large media coverage were for example the attack of several
public organisations, banks, the parliament and ministries in Estonia in 2007 or the
attack on the Ukrainian electricity system in 2015.
Digital Identity As opposed to an identity in the real world, where persons are characterised by
attributes such as physical characteristics or personal data, digital identities rely on
electronically processable characteristics. Such characteristics can be a username and
password, smart cards and tokens or biometric data. Often, in both the digital and the
real world, multiple attributes are combined to better secure unique identification.

12 PUBLIC SERVICES INTERNATIONAL

Term Explanation
Digital-first Principle of public service provision where the access of users to services and/or the
communication between users and public service employees is done digitally, i.e. via
the Internet, through computers and other digital devices.
Digital natives The term digital native refers to a person of the social generation who grew up in
the digital world. By contrast, the term digital immigrant exists as an antonym for
someone who has only come to know this world in adulthood.
Disruptive In contrast to incremental or evolutionary innovations, disruptive innovations refer
technologies / to those that change the rules of the game on the market and/or in user behaviour
innovations for digital devices and/or data. Disruption is often not triggered by the technology
itself but by a change in its usage. One example is the MP3 audio format. This
technology did not trigger any disruption, its use in the context of the functionality
and user-friendliness of portable MP3 readers such as Apple’s iPod or built-in
smartphone applications did so.
E-government E-government stands for electronic government. This refers to the increased use
of modern IT technologies and electronic media for government, its administrative
processes and service delivery. Forms of e-government include offices or authorities
communicating with each other or with citizens electronically, such as online tax
declaration portals, birth certificate requests or motor vehicle registration done
online via a government’s webpage.
eHealth, eMedicine eHealth, also known as Electronic Health, refers to the use of digital technologies
in the healthcare and medical sector. It refers to all tools and services that use
information and communication technologies (ICT) for prevention, diagnosis,
treatment, monitoring and management of pathologies, as well as clinical and
patient data collection and processing. Considering the large amount of private
health data gathered, data protection is an important issue.
Gig economy, Gig(s) Refers to a part of the economy and labour market in which small orders are placed
on short notice with independent, self-employed persons or freelancers through the
use of digital platforms (e.g. Uber for auto-transport, Eat for food deliveries, etc.).
GPS tracking A GPS tracker is a device that can be located via the satellite system and emits radio
signals indicating its location that are received by an external reception device. They
can be used to track objects and people. GPS tracking functions are integrated into
smart phones and many other devices for daily use.
Gunshot detection A gunfire locator or gunshot detection system is a system that detects and conveys
platforms the location of gunfire or other weapon fire using acoustic, optical, or potentially
other types of sensors, as well as a combination of such sensors. These systems
are used by law enforcement, security companies, the military and businesses to
identify the source and, in some cases, the direction of gunfire and/or the type of
weapon fired.
Industry 4.0 After mechanization (Industry 1.0) based on steam technology, mass production
(Industry 2.0) based on Taylorism and automation (Industry 3.0) based on electricity
and analogue computing, the advent of digital technologies and of the Internet of
Things and Services in manufacturing is leading to the fourth industrial revolution
or Industry 4.0.
Internet of Things General term for information infrastructure technologies that make it possible to
(IoT) network physical and virtual objects (e.g. computers, cars, trash bins, traffic lights,
etc.) and allows them to communicate through information and communication
technologies. An example of this are self-scan products in supermarkets whereby
an RFID (radio-frequency identification) chip emits the price and digital check out
occurs automatically. Traffic management and smart traffic lights or sensor-based
trash services in smart cities are also examples of IoT-based processes.
Data mining Data mining is the systematic application of statistical methods to large amounts of
data (in particular  “big data” or mass data) with the aim of identifying correlations,
cross-connections or trends that so far have not been detectable due to a lack of
computer capacity. Data mining is not only carried out for scientific reasons but also
by private actors in order to develop new solutions or business ideas, for example in
the field of  predictive maintenance or  eHealth.

DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A LABOUR PERSPECTIVE 13

 Term Explanation
Machine learning Generic term for the ‘artificial’ generation of knowledge from experience that mimicks human
learning. An artificial intelligence system (a robot or a computer) can be set to learn from
examples, interactions and experience and can embed them into its system as general rules
after the learning phase has ended. It will then be able to use that information in the future in
similar situations. Machine learning is a part of  ‘artificial intelligence’.
mHealth The term mHealth (also mobile health) stands for the support of medical procedures and
health care measures by devices such as smartphones, tablets or personal digital assistants
( PDA) as well as by lifestyle and health applications that can be operated via sensors.
Mobile health includes a number of technical applications, for example the determination of
vital signs such as blood sugar or body temperature, but also communication or motivation
applications, which are intended to remind the user to take medication. The use of apps plays
a major role here, because the sensors installed in the smartphones can capture and process
a large amount of health-related data. The main field of application for mHealth is remote
monitoring patients with chronic illnesses. Automatic SMS dispatch from health providers to
patients is the method most frequently used for this technology, which is expected to expand
in the future in the prevention and treatment of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease and other
neurodegenerative illnesses.
MOOC Massive Open Online Course refers to online courses mainly used in higher education and
adult education, which usually have large numbers of participants as they do not impose any
access or admission restrictions.
Once-Only The aim of the Once-Only principle is that citizens and companies only have to communicate
principle certain standard information, such as name and surname, birthdate, sex and address, to
public authorities and administrations once, thereby avoiding having to do it every time. In
compliance with data protection regulations and with the explicit consent of the users, public
administrations are then allowed to reuse the data and exchange them with each other. The
Once-Only Principle aims to reduce the administrative burdens facing citizens and businesses.
PDA Personal Digital Assistant, i.e. a small mobile handheld computer device used to write text or
manage schedules, emails and telephone numbers. Many of these features are now typically
embedded into smartphones.
Platform The platform economy is economic and social action made possible by digital platforms
economy that typically function as online matchmakers or technology frameworks and operate as
intermediaries, putting offer and demand for a certain product or service in touch. The most
common type by far are “transaction platforms” such as Amazon, Airbnb, Uber or Baidu.
Predictive Predictive analytics include a variety of statistical techniques such as  data mining,
analytics predictive modelling, and  machine learning that analyse current and historical collected
data, extrapolate them and make predictions about future trends and events. Predictive
analytics are used in marketing, financial services, insurance, telecommunications, retail,
travel, mobility, healthcare, child protection, capacity planning, social networking and other
fields. They represent an extremely valuable market and carry the potential for great influence
in economies and societies.
Predictive A maintenance process based on the evaluation of machine-processed data analysis
maintenance collected from advanced manufacturing or industry 4.0. The real-time processing of the
underlying data makes it possible to forecast maintenance needs and consequently reduce
downtimes. In addition to the interpretation of sensor data, this requires a combination of
real-time analysis technology and an in-memory database that can assign a technician to
solve a problem before it occurs.
Robot Process Robot Process Automation is a term that describes the application of  algorithms and 
Automation (RPA) artificial intelligence to “copying” and conducting administrative and other work processes
that had previously been carried out by humans in the field of pay rolling, accounting tasks or
tax collection or basic functions of human resources management, for example.
Servicification Term indicating that manufacturing activities and competitiveness in the world economy
increasingly depend on services rather than products (vs. “commodification”).

14 PUBLIC SERVICES INTERNATIONAL

Term Explanation
Sharing economy This is a collective term for companies, business models, platforms, online and offline
communities that enable the shared use of completely or partially unused resources such as
real estate (AirBnB) or transport (BlaBlaCar) by connecting offer and demand for such goods
and services.
Smart meters / An “intelligent” or smart meter is an electricity, gas, water or heating meter that reads
grids and transmits digital data regarding consumption and maintenance needs and is therefore
integrated into a communication network connected to the provider. Such intelligent meters
have been in use since the 1990s, primarily for large customers. They have also been available
to private households since around 2010. Depending on the model, intelligent meters can
also transmit data to the energy supply company at fast intervals, which should enable it to
better manage its network and resources and anticipate peaks and downtimes (Smart Grid
system).
Social rating/ Social rating or credit systems are not new. In the past, financial lenders and mortgage
credit systems providers were already tracing the timely manner in which clients paid their debts, giving
them a score for solvency. Such systems have expanded in other areas, for example online
shopping or in the rating of Uber drivers and passengers or restaurants and hotels (Tripadvisor,
Booking, AirBnB). Building on these practices, current social rating/credit systems are being
expanded to all aspects of life, and in the case of authoritarian states, used to judge citizens’
social behaviour and potential opposition to rulers.
Taylorism Taylorism describes the principle of controlled work processes established by the American
Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915). It is a management system that predicates breaking
down production into specialised, repetitive tasks in order to increase productivity and
efficiency.
Tele-health Tele-health covers the dissemination of health-related services and information (including
patient’s information) via electronic information and telecommunication technologies. See
also  eHealth and  mHealth
Telework Forms of work in which employees carry out all or part of the work outside the employer’s
premises. In the case of home work, this work takes place at the employee’s home. In most
cases, the results of said work are then transmitted to the employer via digital channels
(e-mail, shared server, website etc.).
Uberisation Uberisation is a term that has generally come to indicate a highly unprotected employment
relationship based on a digital platform in which services (such as Uber taxi services) are
offered on short-term or instant demand through direct contact between a user and a supplier
via a mobile application or website. The intermediary company (in this case Uber) neither
owns cars nor employs drivers directly but earns a percentage on the service.
Virtual reality Virtual reality or VR is the computer-based display and perception of reality in a real-time
(VR) mode that often allows for interaction with the user, for example in the context of computer
games. VR today is used in many areas, e.g. in surgery, remote maintenance and repairs or
training (e.g. flight or train simulation).
Work on demand Work on demand is a request put to an individual to deliver work for a specific, limited time.
While work on demand has existed as a business practice for a long time (consultancies,
short-term contracts, time-bound outsourcing etc.) the digitalisation of work and the rise
of online platforms ( Platform economy  Uberisation) that operate as intermediaries for
work on demand shone a new light on these practices. Work on demand is often presented
as a ‘win–win situation’ by platforms: workers get to tailor their work time to their personal
responsibilities outside the workplace, while businesses can adjust their workforce according
to their short-term needs. This type of work principally generates non-standard form of
employment.
Zero-hour Zero-hour contracts are an extreme form of flexible working used by some employers that do
contracts not specify a minimum number of working hours per week. By signing a zero-hour contract
a worker agrees to be available for work at any time as required, while the employer is not
obliged to provide any work and the worker is not obliged to accept the work offered. The
worker is expected to be on call and receives compensation only for hours worked. This
approach generates precarious employment as it typically shifts most risks and costs of the
employment relationship onto the worker and away from the employer.

DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A LABOUR PERSPECTIVE 15

 List of Acronyms

AFT American Federation of Teachers (United States)

AUPE Amalgamated Union of Public Employees (Singapore)
CFDT Confédération française démocratique du travail (France)
CGT Confédération générale du travail (France)
CNTSS/CUT National Confederation of Social Security Workers (Brazil)
CSQ Centrale des Syndicats du Québec (Canada)
CTM Confederación de Trabajadores Municipales Confederation of Municipal
Workers (Argentina)
DAMD Danish General Practice Database
EGDI E-Government Development Index
EPSU European Federation of Public Service Unions
ETUC European Trades Union Confederation
ETUI European Trade Union Research Institute
FNV Federatie Nederlandse Vakbeweging (Netherlands Trade Union Confederation)
FP-CGIL Funzione Pubblica Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro (Public
Services Sectoral branch of the Italian Trade Union Confederation)
FSC/CC.OO Federation of Services to Citizens (Span)
GPS Global Positioning System
HK Handels- og Kontorfunktionærernes Forbund (Denmark)
ILO International Labour Organisation
IoT Internet of Things
IT / ICT Information Technology / Information and Communication Technology
KMHU Health and Medical Workers Union (Korea)
LED Light Emitting Device
NHS National Health Service
OECD Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
OHS Occupational Health and Safety
PPP Public Private Partnership
PSI Public Services International
PSIRU Public Services International Research Unit
RPA Robotized Process Automation
SFPQ Syndicat de la Fonction Publique et Parapublique du Québec (Canada)
SYMEB Syndicat des Médecins du Burkina (Burkina Faso)
TUAC Trade Union Advisory Committee at OECD
UN United Nations
UNISON UNISON Trade Union (United Kingdom)
UNITE Unite Trade Union (United Kingdom)
UNSA Union nationale des syndicats autonomes (France)
ver.di Vereinte Dienstleistungsgewerkschaft (Germany)

16 PUBLIC SERVICES INTERNATIONAL

INTRODUCTION
Background and context:
Digitalization and the future
of work
N
ew digital technologies and the digitalisation
of communication, production and administra-
tion processes have become one of the key
drivers of economic and social change on a global
scale. In academic debates, the digital transforma-
tion of the economy has been compared to previous
industrial revolutions and cycles1 and described as
the start of a new era of capitalism2.
Digitalisation is a multi-dimensional term defined in
different ways depending on the specific angle of ob-
servation and analysis. Narrower definitions focus on
the adoption of digital technologies and processes in
economic and social activities while broader defini-
tions also refer to its transformational effects on hu-
man civilizations, societies, and the economy. This is
illustrated by the following definition from the OECD:
"Digitisation is the conversion of analogue data
and processes into machine-readable format.
Digitalisation is the use of digital technologies and
data as well as interconnection that result in new or
changes to existing activities. Digital transformation
refers to the economic and societal effects of digiti-
sation and digitalisation.3"
Beyond definitions, what ultimately matters is that
digitalisation is having a powerful transformational
impact. New and 'disruptive' technologies such as
cloud computing, big data gathering and analytics,
Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning or artificial
intelligence (AI)4 not only affect all sectors of the
economy, including public services, but also impact
employment and how we work. As noted in 2018 by
the ILO Global Commission on the future of work, "in-
creased digitalization and automation is expected to
DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A LABOUR PERSPECTIVE
significantly affect both the quality and quantity of
jobs. New types of jobs and employment are chang-
ing the nature and conditions of work by altering
skills requirements and replacing traditional patterns
of work and sources of income.5"
This report defines digitalisation as the interaction
between new digital technologies and the economic,
social, employment and work-related transformation
processes that result from the use and introduction
of such technologies.
There is a growing awareness that digitalisation and
digital transformation process are having and will
continue to have a profound impact on the way pub-
lic services are organised and delivered, as well as
INTRODUCTION
on the relationship between public services and citi-
zens/users6. By contrast, the impact of digitalisation
on public services from a labour perspective, includ-
ing on employment and working conditions, but also
on workers' rights and collective bargaining has not
yet entered public debates.
For policy makers, business consultants, IT multi-
nationals and the tech industry, digitalisation is syn-
onymous with opportunities such as increased ef-
ficiency and cost-reductions in manufacturing and
service work, access to new profit opportunities and
economic growth, and IT-related job creation, with
unexplored potential for innovation and a greener
economy.
But digitalisation is not only about opportunities. It
is also associated with the replacement of human
work by digital processes and devices, robots, new
forms of performance and behaviour control in the
workplace and the unregulated collection of person-
al data. Digitalisation is also giving rise to new forms
of employment relationships, e.g. the placement of
jobs and 'gigs' under precarious conditions. All of this
significantly impacts labour rights and collective bar-
gaining conditions.
17
 From the perspective of labour and work, digitalisa-
tion presents opportunities, but also risks and threats.
This is highlighted in the following table that summa-
rizes its main potential impacts.
Table 1: Overview of the main opportunities and threats related to digitalisation
Opportunities
New jobs (computer engineers and scientists,
network experts, maintenance etc.)
* More ‘agile’ work organisation; new forms of
more flexible and more autonomous work
* Abolition of repetitive, low-skill and routine tasks,
reduction or elimination of arduous or dangerous
work. Improvement of occupational safety and
health
* Better ergonomics, help in performance of heavy
or complex tasks
INTRODUCTION
* New forms of collaboration and cooperation
among workers
* Reshoring (return of industries and new ‘smart’
factories – and jobs – to their regions or country
of origin)
* Possibility of new ways of distributing productivi-
ty gains (working time reduction)
* Possibilities of social emancipation due to a new
concept of ‘work’ and change of economic mod-
el based on peer-to-peer relations (where all par-
ticipants/actors are equal) and common goods
Source: Adaptation from Degryse, 2016: Digitalisation of the economy and its impact on labour markets.
18
Threats
* Destruction of medium and low-skilled jobs (automa-
tion and computerisation)
* Intensification of ‘anytime, anywhere’ work; ‘al-
ways-on culture’; ‘hyper-connectivity’ resulting in
blurring of the boundary between private life and
working life leading to stress and burnout
* Loss of control by workers over their own expertise,
know-how and free will (becoming the “tool” of a
machine)
* Digital management, policing of workers, risk of mutu-
al loss of trust between employees and management
* De-personalization of work, loss of face-to-face in-
teractions, erosion of social skills at work
* Precarisation of jobs and of employment relation-
ships, dependence on ‘data masters’; ‘servification’
* Weakening of collective action and industrial rela-
tions; shrinking of traditional collective bargaining
coverage
* Skills and training/labour demand mismatch
* Exacerbation of inequalities (as regards skills and
competences, “core” vs. “peripheral” jobs and po-
sitions, etc.)
* Wage level stagnation or decline due to an increase
in highly flexible employment relationships and inter-
rupted employment histories
* "Digital Taylorism" and emergence of a class of digital
workplace-based workers (crowd sourcing); world
competition among workers for all jobs not requiring
face-to-face contact
* Erosion of country-based tax base and social insur-
ance financing
PUBLIC SERVICES INTERNATIONAL
The potential threats posed by the many facets of
digitalisation are exemplified in the following vignette
about the potential implications of automation, robo-
tisation and AI for the workplace. These risks raise a
number of important questions, such as how to deal
with job destruction and the replacement of workers
by robots, how to ensure that skills and competence
development keeps pace with digitalisation, and how
to manage adult learning so that all can benefit from
new learning opportunities in order to ensure employ-
ability in a digitalised world.

Figure 1: Robots and the future of work: is technology destroying jobs and skills?

INTRODUCTION

Source: CEDEFOP: Digitalisation and the future of work, available at: http://www.cedefop.europa.eu/
de/events-and-projects/projects/digitalisation-and-future-work

Digitalisation and the ongoing developments of new
technologies will continue to have a major impact
on workers’ everyday life. Digitalisation has enabled
the rise of a range of new forms of work, such as
platform work, digitally mediated service work or
the 'gig-economy7 that often mixes or contains el-
ements of traditional forms of precarious work such
as dependent self-employment, work on demand or
crowd working8 . Those involved in these increasing-
ly widespread forms of work operate under a higher
risk of job insecurity as they are less protected in
terms of labour rights and social security coverage
than workers in more traditional forms of employ-
ment9. Digitalisation is likely to add new types of
precarious work, especially in the grey area between
salaried employment and self-employment and will
increase the number of people in flexible, mobile and
temporary employment10.

DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A LABOUR PERSPECTIVE 19

 Workers in the gig economy are also vulnerable in
terms of unpredictable working hours, variable in-
come levels, lack of training opportunities, poor or
no access to employment rights and social protec-
tion, and inadequate pension coverage11.
Therefore, it is important to view digitalisation not
only as a purely technological issue, but also as a
social and political process with wide-ranging, long-
term implications, as it relates to the role of work and
human labour in our future economies and societies.
It is necessary to analyse the social impact of digi-
talisation on production and service sectors as well
as on employment and labour, social conditions and
cohesion, workers' rights and the power relationship
between capital and labour.
A 2018 survey and cross-sectoral consultation with
European national trade union and company level
employee representatives12 highlighted that, from the
perspective of trade unions and workers, digitalisation
is linked to two fundamental challenges: first, antici-
pating, managing and shaping the effects of new dis-
INTRODUCTION
ruptive technologies and digitalisation on established
industries, services and 'traditional forms' of work.
Second, actively shaping the digital transformation
of workplaces and of the labour market in a manner
that limits risks and threats, fosters fair solutions for all
workers and builds on the potential positive impacts
and opportunities digitalisation can bring.
Digitalization and public
services
Digitalisation and new technologies are having a
huge impact on employment and working conditions
in public services. On the positive side, digital tech-
nologies could improve health and safety by reduc-
ing the strain and repetitiveness of work while also
improving democratic accountability and strengthen-
ing quality public services13. In a 2002 report the
U.S. public services trade union, AFT, stated that
"technology opens new avenues for job innovation,
workplace design and professional development.
Planned or negotiated telework plans can offer em-
ployees alternatives to work from home or a tele-
work centre closer to home. New concepts for the
20
scheduling and place of work offer alternatives for
our changing culture and the demands of our chang-
ing workforce.14"
Cases of new technology improving working prac-
tices in public services include the use of phone
applications to track and direct social or homecare
workers to their appointments. The use of this tech-
nology can be a benefit to workers, for example by
allowing them to optimise their routes and spend
more time caring for patients. Mobile devices and
tracking software can also improve the security of
police officers and social workers when working in
dangerous conditions by reducing the time needed
for rescue and recovery operations in emergency or
assault situations.
However, the same technologies can also be used
to monitor the performance of employees, increase
their pace of work and limit pay only to time spent
with service users, excluding travel time. Therefore,
it is important that the power to control and decide
how to use a new technology is not left uniquely in
the hands of employers, but that their application is
regulated and monitored in the public interest. There
is a need to define clear rules that respect workers'
rights and involve workers and their representatives
in defining the terms of use of new technologies, in-
cluding through collective bargaining.
Given this complexity, the net, exact impact of dig-
italisation and digitalised public services on em-
ployment, working conditions and workers' rights is
far from clear. It very much depends on existing or
emerging regulatory framework conditions at an in-
ternational, national and workplace level, including
whether employees and their trade unions have a say
or are denied participation in modelling digitalisation
projects and introducing new technologies into pub-
lic services.
It is therefore hardly surprising that digitalisation is a
polarising issue for trade unions and workers’ repre-
sentatives. The previously mentioned 2018 survey
of European trade unions found that about half of
all respondents from all economic sectors and from
more than 30 European countries thought that the
opportunities resulting from digitalisation would out-
weigh the risks for their respective country, sector or
PUBLIC SERVICES INTERNATIONAL
company. However, a strong minority of over a third
of respondents believed that digitalisation would
bring more risks than opportunities, while the rest
simply did not know.
When comparing responses from public service
trade unions with the overall results, it seems that
workers representatives and trade unions in public
services appeared more sceptical regarding the pos-
itive impact of digitalisation on their respective coun-
try, workplace or job. Around 50% of all respondents
from public service unions (compared to 37% on
average across all sectors) disagreed or strongly dis-
agreed that digitalisation would provide more oppor-
tunities than risks in their respective country, work-
place or job.

Figure 2: Do you think that digitalisation will provide more opportunities than risks for your
country, company or job? (% of responses, n=771 (all sector), n=70 (public services)

INTRODUCTION
Source: Voss, E. 2018: “Digitalisation and Workers Participation – What Trade Unions, Company level Workers

While similar global surveys have not yet been carried

out to our knowledge, based on the interviews car-
ried out with representatives of PSI-affiliated trade
Purpose of this report
unions in non-European world regions within the
Given the general research gap surrounding the im-
framework of this study, overall scepticism can be
pact of new technologies and digitalisation on public
confirmed. Indeed, very few respondents referred
services, the main purpose of this report is to pro-
to the opportunities linked to digitalisation and digital
vide a broad global overview of the introduction of
public services, whereas a majority stressed existing
digital technologies in the sector and to look at the
risks and potential further negative effects on work-
ways in which they are impacting employment, work-
ing conditions and employment.
ing conditions and labour rights as well as service
delivery, quality and accessibility.

DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A LABOUR PERSPECTIVE 21

 In line with its 2017 Congress Programme of Action,
the Public Services International (PSI) global union15
decided to prioritise work on digitalisation and com-
missioned the present report, with the support of the
Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES)16. By addressing the
topic of digitalisation through a global lens, the re-
port aims to reduce this research gap and serve as
a basis for global debate and consultation amongst
public service trade unions worldwide.
Methodology and scope of
the study
PSI required researchers to address five main top-
ics related to digitalisation, employment and working
conditions in public services:
zz The forms digital technologies are taking in dif-
ferent public service branches and services and
how they are being introduced;
INTRODUCTION
zz Their impact on the quality, effectiveness and
accessibility of public services for users and
communities;
zz How digital technologies are changing employ-
ment and working conditions (including occupa-
tional health and safety, employment levels, job
tenure, equality, etc.) in public services;
zz The impact of digital technologies on public
service workers’ rights and trade unions, name-
ly through collective bargaining and alternative
forms of participation;
zz The regulatory tools and governance systems
that exist (or should be established) to oversee
the introduction and impact of digital technolo-
gies on public services and protect workers and
users.
In addition to the analysis of these questions and
their contextualization, the focus of this report is
largely empirical: the authors tried to draw on con-
crete practice experiences and the lessons learned
from both the desk research and the interviews and
materials gathered from respondent PSI affiliate
22
representatives. Specific attention was paid to trade
union demands, recommendations and practices
that aim to ensure that new technologies in public
services live up to their promise to enhance service
quality, effectiveness and accessibility for users,
while also improving working conditions and creating
decent employment opportunities.
The study is based on two complementary meth-
odological approaches. First, an extensive literature
review and associated desk research looking at dig-
italisation and public services from several angles:
the introduction of digital technologies into pub-
lic services; the impact of digitalisation on service
quality, effectiveness and accessibility; the impact
of digital technologies on working conditions and la-
bour rights; and digitalisation as addressed by trade
unions and collective bargaining.
Secondly, the study included interviews with a sam-
ple of 20 PSI-affiliated trade union organisations from
5 continents: Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America,
North America and Africa. Contacts were facilitated
by PSI, and interviews were carried out between
autumn 2018 and the beginning of 2019 based on
a semi-structured questionnaire (see annex 2).
Interviews were conducted in English, French,
Spanish, German, Portuguese and Swedish. The
complete list of organisations that participated in the
study is available in the annex.
While PSI affiliates from the European region were
the most responsive with 11 participating public
service unions, the scope of the report remains
global as 10 interviews were conducted with trade
union representatives from other regions: 2 from
North America, 2 from Latin America, 3 from Asia-
Pacific and 1 from Africa.
As regards the study’s sectoral scope, the research
covers all the main branches represented by PSI:
central government administration; local and region-
al (municipal) government; utilities (electricity, water
and waste services); health and social services; ed-
ucation and culture; firefighting, police and emergen-
cy services.
PUBLIC SERVICES INTERNATIONAL
 INTRODUCTION
Structure of this report globe
in pub-
are involved
lic policy and
reform, social dialogue
This report is composed of 5 chapters. Chapter 1
and collective bargaining practices
provides an overview of the context, drivers and
pertaining to digitalisation, as well as the direct in-
frameworks of digitalisation in public services. New
volvement and participation of unions and workers
technologies and digitalisation in public services
representatives in the introduction of new technolo-
are discussed from a sectoral perspective (central
gies and in the development of major criteria for good
government, local and regional government, public
digital public services. The report closes with chap-
utilities, health and social services, education and
ter 5 drawing some conclusions and issuing recom-
cultural services, security, border and emergency
mendations on how digitalisation can be turned into a
services). The impact of digitalisation on the quality,
driver for better public services and jobs for all, while
effectiveness and accessibility of public services, in-
identifying strategic areas for future research that fit
cluding privacy and security issues, service efficien-
such a vision. q
cy and quality as well as public finances is the focus
of chapter 2. Chapter 3 gathers evidence from desk
research and from interviews on digitalisation’s impact
on employment, working conditions and workers'
rights in public services. Chapter 4 describes trade
union practices and approaches to digitalisation, in-
cluding efforts and strategies to influence and shape
the digital transformation process in public services.
It presents the way in which trade unions around the

DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A LABOUR PERSPECTIVE 23


DIGITALIZATION
AND PUBLIC SERVICES:
A SECTOR-SPECIFIC OVERVIEW
DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A SECTOR-SPECIFIC OVEROVERVIEW
1.1 Context and drivers
D
igitalisation is part of a broader modernisation
trend in public services. Technological inno-
vation has led to the introduction of digital
technologies, tools and processes such as machine
learning, artificial intelligence or blockchain technol-
ogy across all public services with the aim of increas-
ing resources and cost efficiency and making servic-
es and interactions between service providers and
users more efficient.
Such changes have been strongly supported by
national governments on all continents through
e-government, e-citizenship or e-health initiatives.
Additionally, Internet giants located mainly in the
Silicon Valley17 and China have triggered a new cycle
of innovation primarily based on artificial intelligence.
This cycle is currently ongoing and might shape the
future of public services even more substantially.
These changes are linked to relatively new ways of
organising and providing public services, often asso-
ciated with the buzzword ‘smart’: ‘smart administra-
tion’, ‘smart cities’, ‘smart metering’, and even ‘smart
legislation’. Large tech companies such as Google,
24
1.
Apple, Microsoft and many others know that digitali-
sation is a lucrative business across all public service
sectors, and thus have channelled large private in-
vestments into new technology development. They
have entered public services as new players and
important drivers of disruptive technologies such as
machine learning, artificial intelligence or blockchain
technology.
In contrast to previous waves of technological
change in public services, digitalisation also includes
new forms of services that did not exist in the past.
These new services are often related to the gather-
ing and analysis of private data from citizen/users,
new channels of communication and interaction with
citizen/users (digital platforms) or brokerage of ser-
vices (e.g. in health and care, transport). They are
very much driven by large multinational companies
active in IT and telecommunication, medical servic-
es, transport, facilities, software and digital applica-
tion development. For these companies, digital tech-
nologies such as cloud computing, big data analytics
or machine learning and AI form the basis of new
business models applicable to industry and public
services alike. The involvement of private compa-
nies in public service provision and development
goes beyond data control and commercialization. It
PUBLIC SERVICES INTERNATIONAL

correlates with the privatisation of private data as op-
posed to their classification as a public good and the
expansion of the commons.
According to all interviewed union representatives,
this latter dimension of digitalisation goes beyond ear-
lier phases of technological change because it blurs
the boundaries between public and private services,
including their financing and control. Increasingly im-
portant ethical questions arise from recent trends in
algorithm development and use in new areas such as
‘social rating’, worker-machine interactions, and HR
robotics or chat bots, etc.
This section of the report provides an overview of
digitalisation trends in major public services. It seeks
to describe the new technologies and drivers that
are changing public service delivery, as well as the
framework conditions and actors that trigger dig-
ital change, impacting work and the employment
relationship.
1.2 Central government
PSI’s 2017 Programme of Action says18, “Digitalisation
of central administration work is taking place under
the guise of reducing the administrative burden to
business and citizens. These efforts include the de-
livery of services digitally, through a single contact
point or a one-stop shop."
DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A LABOUR PERSPECTIVE
DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A SECTOR-SPECIFIC OVEROVERVIEW
According to a 2019 OECD report, digitalisation of
government was optional in the past, but today be-
comes increasingly “imperative”.19 This implies a
move from selected e-government projects towards
a “whole-of-government” approach that integrates
various central government services including ad-
ministration, ministries, tax authorities and tax col-
lection, court processes and jurisdiction, prison ser-
vices, border security, police and other emergency
services.
This strong pressure to digitalise government pro-
cesses and services, especially in developing coun-
tries, also represents a means to attract foreign di-
rect investment. This approach is promoted by the
OECD, which states: "Digital technologies should
not only be used to digitise analogue processes
and services, but as an opportunity to fundamen-
tally rethink and reorganise government processes,
procedures and services as being digital by design,
and facilitate the involvement of people’s preferenc-
es and user needs as drivers of change. In line with
this approach, countries are increasingly adopting a
“mobile first” approach to digital government." (OECD
2019, p. 41)
Since 2001, the UN has regularly published e-govern-
ment surveys to benchmark the state of e-govern-
ment worldwide. These surveys have documented
that the number of countries adopting e-government
systems has increased, not only as regards the de-
velopment of e-government channels but also in re-
lation to their integration.
25
 Figure 3: UN model of e-governance
DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A SECTOR-SPECIFIC OVEROVERVIEW
Source: UN e-government Survey 2014, p. 113.
According to the 2018 edition of the UN Survey20,
Denmark leads the world in providing government
services and information to citizens/users through
the Internet, followed by Australia and the Republic of
Korea. The remaining countries in the top 10 are the
United Kingdom, Sweden, Finland, Singapore, New
Zealand, France and Japan.
The number of countries providing online services
in terms of information and communication with cit-
izens through document exchanges and services
by emails, SMS/RSS feed updates, mobile apps and
downloadable forms has globally increased. For in-
stance, up to 176 countries now provide digitally ar-
chived information online compared to 154 in 2016.
However, despite some developmental gains and ma-
jor investments in several countries, digital divides
persist in a majority of world due to lack of access to
IT hardware (computer machines) and software; lack
of infrastructure (non-electrified areas, erratic elec-
tricity services); and low digital literacy among the
26
population. Fourteen countries in the low-end of the
UN E-Government Development Index (EGDI)21 group
are African and number among the world’s least de-
veloped countries. Only 4 countries out of 54 in Africa
score higher than the world EGDI average.
Generally, there is a positive correlation between a
country’s income level and its e-government ranking.
This is not universal, however. 22 upper middle-in-
come and 39 lower-middle income countries have
EGDI scores below the global EGDI average, while
10 countries in the lower middle-income group have
scores above the global EGDI average. The lower in-
come countries, on the other hand, continue to lag
behind due to a relatively low level of development in
all EGDI Index components.
PUBLIC SERVICES INTERNATIONAL
 Singapore –
Objective to become a ‘Smart Nation’
The Singaporean Government has had a computerisation
plan since the 1980s. In 2014, it announced its goal to
become a ‘Smart Nation’, of which Digital Government
is an integral aspect. Singapore has been embracing
e-government as a whole-of-government approach in
its national development strategy. Its small population
and land area, accompanied by a very high human
capital development and high GDP per capita, allow the
government to develop a full suite of online services for
its citizens, businesses and visitors. Additionally, the
high mobile and smartphone usage rate in Singapore
allows the government to provide electronic access to
services for citizens through mobile applications. The
government’s objectives include platforms for public
private sector services, the introduction of a National
Digital Identity by 2022, putting most government
services on the cloud (by 2023) and piloting the
deployment of autonomous vehicles in public transport
by 2022. According to the Singaporean public service
trade union, AUPE, digitalisation in the Singaporean
government reflects not only technological feasibilities
but also changes in employment and society: there is
a significant shortage of labour in many social services
such as the health and care sector and citizens expect
faster, efficient and more convenient services.
Source: Interview with a representative of AUPE, the
Amalgamated Union of Public Employees in Singapore
In 2018, an estimated 1.1 billion people worldwide—
mostly people living in poverty, migrants, refugees,
those in rural communities and other disadvantaged
groups—had no legal identity22. In view of this, dig-
ital identities are offered as a promise to provide
these vulnerable groups with legal identities in order
to expand financial inclusion and prevent fraud and
corruption in the delivery of public services.
However, as the example of the Aadhaar programme
in India (see textbox below) shows, digital identity
programmes—if uncontrolled and implemented with
weak transparency and democratic control—can en-
tail massive problems in terms of data privacy and
security.
DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A LABOUR PERSPECTIVE
India:
The Aadhaar digital identity programme
As early as 2009 the Indian government introduced
the Aadhaar biometric identity programme in order to
respond to the wastage of subsidised food and misuse
of existing legal identities. As of June 2017, the Aadhaar
biometric database had 1.2 billion registered citizens
and was the largest biometric database in the world.
Enrolment in the programme is outsourced to private
providers. It aims to provide the entire population of India
with digital identities, and currently covers at least 80%
of the population in most Indian States. It serves as the
basis for interaction between the government and its
citizens at various levels, while granting public service
DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A SECTOR-SPECIFIC OVEROVERVIEW
access. Aadhaar captures a biometric profile consisting
of an iris scan, fingerprints and a photograph. Data are
stored centrally in the Unique Identification Authority of
India (UIDAI) and, since 2016, registration is compulsory
for access to most welfare and social services23. Even
entering a bar or visiting a restaurant might require
identifying oneself by the 12-digit identification number.
In the future it is planned to connect Aadhaar with
individual health data. In September 2018, after alerts
launched by data protection and human rights experts,
the High Court of India declared the programme to be
compatible with the Indian constitution and national
data protection legislation despite significant doubts as
to the security of private data.
Sources: Various, see for example the Time arti-
cle of 28 Sep 2018: http://time.com/5409604/
india-aadhaar-supreme-court/
This risk of selling off public goods is exemplified
by blockchain, a key piece of technology that is in-
creasingly being used in public services in develop-
ing countries, including India. Blockchain is originally
linked to the invention of the Bitcoin crypto curren-
cy and is currently being applied to a wide variety of
public services and activities such as tax filing, vot-
ing, land and asset registry, healthcare or the man-
agement of identity cards as well as financial trans-
actions. It is being massively promoted by private
tech companies, including internet companies that
manage data for public agencies, which raises the
question of data and process control, management
and ownership.
27
 According to a 2018 report released by a global pri-
vate consultancy company24, blockchain has expe-
rienced a dramatic boom during the last 3-5 years
and will have an impact on our economies and soci-
eties comparable to that of the Internet in the 1990s.
Public agencies in more than 20 countries—includ-
ing Canada, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Singapore,
South Korea, China and India — are running pilots,
tests, and trials examining both the architecture’s
broad utility as a basis for government service pro-
vision and procurement and developing individual
blockchain-based applications for internal use.
Denmark is one of the countries where the digital-
DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A SECTOR-SPECIFIC OVEROVERVIEW
isation of public services and central government
functions (tax collection, judiciary, legislative pro-
cesses) is among the most advanced in the world. In
2011 Denmark established an Agency for Digitisation
in charge of the government's digitisation policies,
including the implementation of the public sector
Digital Strategy 2016-2020, setting the course for
Danish public-sector digitalisation efforts as well
as their interaction with businesses and industry.
Denmark has also made digital government-citizen
interactions mandatory by law25. Each Danish citizen
has his/her own electronic ID and letterbox for com-
munication with government agencies (the so-called
ebok that was introduced in 2001), and since 2014
public authorities are legally obliged to communi-
cate with citizens through digital means exclusively.
According to interviews carried out in the context of
this study, 9 out of 10 Danes in 2018 were using the
Internet as their principal tool to communicate with
public authorities.
According to interviewed Danish and Swedish trade
unions, the rapid digitalisation process undergone
by public services was facilitated by the high level
of trust placed in the government and public admin-
istration by citizens and their feeling that digitalisa-
tion is beneficial for all. For the HK Kommunal trade
union, this trust seems quite baffling as there have
been massive problems with data security and pri-
vacy in Denmark, both as regards the digitalisation
of the tax administration and healthcare data security
(see chapter 2.3).
28
Denmark: Towards digitisation-ready legislation
and digital court case processing
Since 2018, the Danish government has made it
mandatory for all Ministries to assess "whether new
legislation is digitisation-ready". According to the
government, legal rules in some areas are highly
complicated. At the same time, exercising professional
discretion is often mandatory in case processing.
Thus, complex legislation including several exceptions,
vague terms or many procedural requirements would
prevent efficient digital public administration. Therefore,
the Danish government wishes to simplify legislation
and integrate public court case processing and
technology. "Unnecessary and complex legislation
should be simplified and new legislation should be
easily understandable and digital processable. Future
legislation must be drafted in a way that is both easily
manageable and enables digital administration."
According to the Danish Digitisation Agency,
"digitisation-ready legislation will underpin an easier
everyday life for public employees and an efficient
public sector that is capable of serving both citizens
and corporations."
Source: https://en.digst.dk/policy-and-
strategy/cutting-red-tape-in-denmark/
digitisation-ready-legislation-principles/
The Danish HK Kommunal trade union that represents
workers in Danish municipalities and regions high-
lighted the following risks related to the approach
taken by digitisation-ready legislation:
zz Digitisation increases standardisation and one-
size fits-all solutions regardless of issue;
zz Decisions made by machines26 might alienate
citizens and weaken trust in the government;
zz Employees are unable to use their skills and
become increasingly dependent on machine-
based processes and decision making;
zz There is the risk that the trust of users and their
support for the Danish welfare state is dwindling
because of the loss of personal relationships,
communication and interaction.
PUBLIC SERVICES INTERNATIONAL
Trade unions across different countries have raised
concerns about mandatory digital services and
‘digital first’ approaches in government services, in
particular when it comes to communication and in-
teraction between public services and citizens. By
promoting a mandatory digital first approach, govern-
ments may inadvertently create new digital divides
by excluding those who cannot use online services.
Additionally, due to the accelerated development of
AI, chatbots are spreading throughout all kinds of pri-
vate and public services, be it informing foreign vis-
itors about the functioning of a city or government,
providing individualised information on travel (e.g. in
London27) and cultural events, or documenting com-
plaints regarding public services (as for example in
Singapore28).
In the United Kingdom (UK), trade union represent-
atives of UNITE and UNISON have highlighted survey
results showing that around 12% of the population
has no access to the Internet and up to 20% of UK
citizens do not have the skills or ability to communi-
cate via email, use a search engine or conduct trans-
actions online29.
In a statement delivered in the context of this study,
the public service trade union ver.di of Germany
notes that the German governing parties have also
included a commitment to ‘digital first’ in their 2018
coalition agreement as well as in the government
action programme. According to ver.di, the decision
to make use of new digital technologies is too often
driven purely by considerations of technological in-
novation and productivity, while lacking any reflec-
tion on the way this may impact both the quality of
the services and citizens/users and employees.
In French-speaking Canada, the public service trade
union SFPQ highlighted several cases of technolo-
gy-driven digitalisation projects that aimed to solve
public government and administration problems but
did not go according to the initial plan. One prom-
inent example was that of an integrated system for
payment and invoicing management (SAGIR). This
was to be implemented comprehensively across
all public administration sectors within five years. In
the end, the system took 12 years to be set up, cost
750% more than its original estimation and, in the
DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A LABOUR PERSPECTIVE
DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A SECTOR-SPECIFIC OVEROVERVIEW
end, did not work as it should. Reports by public au-
ditors and independent experts that were published
in 2015 highlighted the problematic role of private
IT/software companies as well as private consulting
firms involved in SAGIR as regards their assignments,
remuneration and the efficiency and quality of work
carried out by consultants and IT suppliers. Above
that, it was noted that no serious risk assessment
was carried out and the new system has created new
dependencies between public servants and private
consultants (as regards the assessment and approv-
al of the quality of the work)30.
As reported by the United States (U.S.) public ser-
vice employee trade union, AFT, some U.S. states
have adopted a digital first approach. In Kansas, au-
thorities have completely eliminated any possibility
to apply for social benefits elsewhere than online.
This is regarded as problematic because there is no
longer any human relationship between the social
service departments and the citizens. This digitalisa-
tion of communication and interaction will increase
further in light of the increasing tendency of public
authorities to introduce chat bots for communicating
with users, as is the case for vehicle registration in
Illinois. AFT stressed that digitalisation is also causing
major risks and challenges, which need to be urgent-
ly addressed, such as new divides as regards the ac-
cess to digital infrastructure, cybersecurity breach-
es, or the need for skills development and adequate
employee training.
Several interviewed union representatives also
raised concerns regarding the strong dependency
on private IT providers and business consultancies
29
 1.3 Local and regional
government

Although central governments play a leading role in

developing and rolling out digitalisation programmes
and initiatives, most public services tend to be de-
livered at municipal, local, or regional government
level, particularly in regionalised or federal states,
which is also where public administrations interact
and communicate most directly with citizens and
service users.
DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A SECTOR-SPECIFIC OVEROVERVIEW

The local and regional levels of government are

therefore highly relevant and on the frontline of the
introduction of new digital processes and technolo-
experienced by governments when carrying out
gies in public service provision, as well as in terms
e-government programmes and the digitalisation of
of the numbers of workers involved and impacted.
administrative services. The Canadian SFPQ union
In Germany for example, around 85% of all public
called attention to the fact that large Canadian and
services are provided by local government, includ-
multinational companies were playing a key role in
ing services in the field of education and care, poli-
developing, delivering and implementing digitali-
cy, public space management, waste collection and
sation solutions for public administrations. The key
disposal, road infrastructures, public transport and
actors who, according to SFPQ, are dominating the
social housing.
e-government market in Canada are CGI, LGS (part of
IBM) and Microsoft.
The “Smart City” concept has spread as a catchword
to describe a very heterogeneous set of trends,
As illustrated by the aforementioned case of SAGIR
technological and organizational changes occurring
in Canada, this dependency is problematic because
at the level of local and regional governments. The
public administrations often lack IT specialists and
overall idea pertains to the use of information and
suitably qualified and skilled professionals, which
communication technologies to improve public ser-
further increases their dependency on large private
vices provided by local governments through a more
digital tech companies and private IT consultants.
efficient use of resources (e.g. water, public lighting,
The concern is that a government will, for example,
waste etc.), resulting in cost and energy savings and
deploy AI-based services relying on these private
reduced environmental footprints; but also to offer
digital tech companies and then remain dependent
additional services in fields such local transport (e.g.
on them, thereby causing additional privacy and se-
traffic management and real time information, on-de-
curity risks by sharing citizens’ data with the private
mand services, information and communication with
sector.
public authorities (e.g. via apps, websites or chat-
bots), crime detection, schools, libraries, hospitals,
However, several unions also highlighted some pos-
and other services. Thus, smart cities are based on
itive effects stemming from the digitalisation of cen-
features that are very closely related to the Internet,
tral government functions. For a representative of the
sensors, digital devices and data gathering and anal-
National Confederation of Social Security Workers of
ysis of large amounts of information31.
Brazil, CNTSS/CUT, new digital offers and servic-
es such as online scheduling, fiscal collection and
While smart cities can simply encapsulate a select
e-processes in court have brought benefits to public
few landmark projects, it can also en-compass a
service efficiency as well as to service quality.
wide range of different city services and municipal

30 PUBLIC SERVICES INTERNATIONAL


departments. For example, Tokyo’s Smart City plan
focuses heavily on sustainability, exploring how tech-
nology can reduce food waste and energy usage.
On the other hand, cities such as Barcelona, also
operating under the Smart City policy umbrella, are
implementing over a hundred Smart City solutions
in education, energy management, environment,
healthcare, mobility, social inclusion and urban de-
velopment. By contrast, Smart City programmes
in developing countries in Asia, Africa as well as in
Latin American countries are often used as a tool to
attract foreign direct investors for technology or as
a door for privatisation projects. An example is India
where the Smart City programme is closely linked to
the government's Industrial Corridor Project, a joint
industrial development project between India and
Japan launched in 2006. The Delhi-Mumbai Industrial
Corridor Project is one of the world’s largest infra-
structure projects with a 1,500 km long freight corri-
dor, spreading across six Indian states and consisting
in, among other things, the development of 24 indus-
trial regions, 8 smart cities, 2 international airports,
rapid rail transport and logistical hubs32.
Smart cities are actively promoted by international
organisations such as the UN33 and the World Bank
(see textbox below) but also by large global tech and
consulting companies34. The promotion of smart
cities is driven by the overall promise to make urban
government and administration more efficient, fos-
ter innovation and promote inclusion. Furthermore,
smart cities are based on a vision of "doing more with
less" (World Bank).
However, such promises have yet to become reality
and the close linkage between Smart City technol-
ogies and investments and the business interests
of large private companies and consultancies casts
significant doubts on whether this will ever be the
case. As illustrated by the Smart City policy in India
described below, smart cities often pursue strategies
and practices that are quite different to those high-
lighted by the World Bank description above35:
DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A LABOUR PERSPECTIVE
Smart cities according to the World Bank
"Pragmatically, old and new cities alike have begun
to incorporate smart technologies into the everyday
fabric and complexities of their existing urban centres
to drive greater efficiencies in city operations; provide a
platform for innovation at a citywide scale; and promote
social inclusion through heightened accountability,
citizen empowerment, and smarter decision making.
(…) "By collecting large amounts of data and then
translating these data into insights, cities are able
DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A SECTOR-SPECIFIC OVEROVERVIEW
to boost the efficiency and responsiveness of their
operations. Data help cities better match the supply
of public services with real-time needs and uncover
emerging problems before they turn into crises. Smart
city technologies make this possible in several ways.
Automated optimization translates data from cameras,
sensors, and anonymized cell phone records into
intelligence to, for example, help optimize traffic flows
in real time. Predictive analytics uses such data to
track and predict everything from rainfall to crime hot
spots to possible landslide areas. Evidence-based
decision making and planning can continuously monitor
milestones and targets to ensure cities can quickly take
corrective actions as needed to achieve their goals.”
Source: World Bank: World Development Report 2016,
p. 240/41
Most cities in India are characterized by strong di-
chotomies as regards social, spatial and economic
conditions. Against this background of urban inequal-
ity and inadequate living conditions, the Smart Cities
Mission (SCM) was launched by the Government
of India in June 2015 with the objective of creating
100 ‘smart cities’ in the country by the 2023. As of
June 2018, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs
had chosen 99 cities to be developed as ‘smart cit-
ies’, on the basis of the Smart City Proposals sub-
mitted to them within the competition framework
of the India Smart Cities Challenge. These projects
should be funded by both public funds and private
investments36.
31
 Smart Cities India: Smart for whom?

The development strategy proposed by the ‘Smart City’ model is characterized by the creation of enclaves
of high investment, high concentrations of information and communications technologies, and ‘smart’
services, including free Wi-Fi, improved traffic control, intelligent sensors, and better utilities. India’s se-
lected smart cities have chosen to implement a retrofit and redevelopment model with a focus on attract-
ing investment to cities. The cost of developing these ‘smart enclaves,’ while facilitating the expulsion of
low-income groups to city peripheries under the guise of ‘permanent housing,’ will have to be borne by the
residents who continue to live in these areas, not all of whom are wealthy.

Taking stock of three years of practice, a recent evaluation report indicates that the Smart City initiative
raises strong concerns both about who benefits most from the initiative’s added value and regarding the
impact it may be having on urban challenges and social and living conditions37. The following problematic
aspects were highlighted amongst others:

* The rationale of selecting only 100 of India’s over 4,000 cities and towns and furthermore focusing only
DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A SECTOR-SPECIFIC OVEROVERVIEW

on select areas within each city without an inclusionary approach.

* The initiative favours the development of ‘smart enclaves’ while facilitating the likely expulsion of low-in-
come groups to city peripheries. Within the cities, factors indicate that user charges for essential ser-
vices, including the provision of water, have already increased and that the costs of real estate are likely
to rise, fuelling the threat of market-led evictions and the gentrification of ‘smart’ neighbourhoods.

* There is a lack of integrated city development models and adequate standards for project implemen-
tation, including in such fields as housing, water, sanitation, health, and environmental sustainability.
Furthermore, the guidelines do not include any human rights-based indicators and monitoring tools that
analyse the impact on low-income and other disadvantaged groups such as secluded castes, tribes or
other minority groups.

* While housing for low-income groups has been identified as an area of concern in almost every select-
ed proposal, cities have approached the issue differently, labelling low-income settlements (‘slums’) as
threats or weaknesses. None of the cities have recognized housing as a human right or included stand-
ards of adequate housing. In fact, forced evictions and demolitions of homes have been documented
in around one third of all smart cities.

* New and emerging technologies tend to capture personally identifiable information and household-lev-
el data about citizens, which gives rise to serious concerns about violations of people’s privacy through
misuse of big data.

* The Smart Cities initiative is linked to strengthened investment and an accelerated transition towards
the privatisation and corporatisation of Indian cities with significant implications for local governance,
service provision and their residents’ fundamental rights as regards democratic participation, access to
and quality of public services.

One of the Smart Cities initiative’s clear objectives is to secure foreign investment in urban projects and
development. Various foreign governments and multinational corporations have committed funding. The
actual amount of remittances and the conditionalities attached to these investments are not known. There
are therefore concerns about the level of control that local governments will have over decisions and out-
comes related to Smart City projects.

Source: Based on Housing and Rights Network 2018: India's Smart City Mission.
Smart for whom? Cities for whom.

32 PUBLIC SERVICES INTERNATIONAL

In view of these features and trends, as well as the
lack of both local resident and community partic-
ipation and trade union involvement in Smart City
concepts, the president of India’s Nagpur Municipal
Corporation Employee Union (NMCEU) union was
very critical of the Smart Cities Initiative. According
to him, smart cities reflect the overall trend in local
and municipal government towards reducing costs,
increasing user fees and subtly privatising services.
According to critics, the experience of smart cities
in India illustrates that ‘smart’ and ‘modernisation’
labels can be used to allow the implementation of
policies that neither improve local government ser-
vices and provision nor benefit residents, but rather
promote business and private investment. The exam-
ple of India’s smart cities and that of Kenya’s Konza
Technopolis and Silicon Savannah projects38 illus-
trate that some of these initiatives are not primarily
oriented towards serving public interest but rather
meant to attract private investors. This “for-profit”
approach to smart cities and related digitalisation
processes can be rightly labelled as 'corporate-led
digitalisation' as opposed to 'public-led digitalisation'.
Few Smart City projects aim to improve the social
and working conditions, environmental standards,
democratic structures, transparency and democratic
participation of city dwellers and local communities.
Such goals would also imply the retention of tech-
nological sovereignty (e.g. open source blockchain
technologies); the development of ‘ethical digital
standards’; and the avoidance of private data com-
modification and ‘surveillance capitalism’.39
One example of progressive local administration that
goes in this direction is Barcelona, Spain (see text-
box beside), which illustrates a case of ‘public-led’
digitalisation. Rather than being driven by private
corporate interests, digitalisation in public services
should be oriented towards the public interest and
to build the commons as well as improving service
quality and access. ‘Public-led’ digitalisation policies
have a potential to expand the commons and ge-
olocalization data as a public good, publicly owned,
collected, handled and managed with accountabili-
ty and in a way that is respectful of the privacy and
rights of individuals, be they citizens, service users
or workers.
DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A LABOUR PERSPECTIVE
Barcelona: Smart City, technological
sovereignty and public goods
Barcelona intends to become the most connected
city in the world and is making true on this promise by
investing consider¬ably in IoT applications for the city.
However, the broader objectives of the Barcelona Smart
City approach differ from most other similar practices:
since 2015, the left-wing municipal council of Barcelona
has been implementing the Smart City concept in a
way that uses new technologies and digitalisation for
the good of the public rather than in service of private
commercial interests. Smart City Barcelona is about re-
municipalisation (e.g. of water), participation and citizen
involvement, affordable housing, good healthcare,
DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A SECTOR-SPECIFIC OVEROVERVIEW
sustainable mobility, green public spaces and reduced
CO2 emissions. In contrast to other Smart City concepts,
the municipal government is trying to avoid selling off
infrastructure management and data handling to large
private companies and has developed its own systems
and tools, which are characterised by transparency
and the democratic control of data40. The city’s digital
transformation process, which started with a decision
taken in 2016 by the Barcelona City Council that public
services be provided through digital channels, was
framed from the outset by guidelines that included the
use of open standards and open software as well as an
ethical data strategy focused on privacy, transparency
and digital rights. According to the city's Ethical Digital
Standards, "all municipal digital policies give priority
to the protection of citizens’ digital rights, reflect their
wishes and are based on their participation”41.
The city is connecting devices and collecting a plethora
of data that can then be translated into meaningful
insights to guide daily municipal decisions. For example,
in order to reduce energy costs in public buildings
the council installed Smart LED lamps equipped
with motion-sensitive sensors. The initiative allowed
them to save 30 percent in energy. The sensors also
capture a range of data from noise level to air pollution
and humidity levels, which is later used to inform the
council’s decisions. Ultimately, the city is hoping to
cut costs and increase social wellbeing by managing
its resources more efficiently and using data to inform
investment decisions.
Source: various sources, see also: https://ajunta-
ment.barcelona.cat/digital/ca
33
 1.4 Public utilities
DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A SECTOR-SPECIFIC OVEROVERVIEW
In 2010 the UN recognized clean water and sanita-
tion as basic human rights and critical to achieving
good health for all. Water and sanitation, energy pro-
duction, transmission and distribution, and waste
collection and treatment are fundamental public ser-
vices. However, the provision of these services to all
citizens still pose huge challenges in terms of access
and delivery as, be they privately or publically pro-
vided, they are poorly managed and underfunded in
many countries.
Most interviewed union representatives empha-
sized how challenging it was to extend services or
(re)build infrastructure and to fund daily operations
and maintenance when public resources are limited
or restricted by austerity policies. In such situations,
national and local government administrations often
turn to public-private partnerships or contract servic-
es out to private businesses, even if these are not
sustainable solutions in the long term42.
These trends are not new, but digitalisation is in-
creasingly affecting the way in which public utilities
are provided and refurbished. The introduction of
digital technologies into the utilities sector is com-
paratively different from the past. Indeed, it is more
comprehensive and far-reaching, being character-
ised by the integration of the Internet and wireless
communication devices into all levels of generation
and provision, including smart grids and smart meter-
ing for energy and water distribution43.
34
Technological innovations such as the use of chat-
bots as interfaces for service users e.g. on the web-
page or mobile phone app of the service provider
are strongly driven by private digital tech companies
such as Google, Apple, Amazon or Samsung.
Chatbots in public utilities:
Dubai Electricity & Water Authority
RAMMAS is the Artificial Intelligence chatbot application
launched by the Dubai Electricity & Water Authority
(DEWA) on 17th, January 2017. It can communicate in
English as well as Arabic. This is the first ever government
chatbot application launched on the Google AI
platform44. The chatbot application is available on the
DEWA website, IOS, Android, Amazon Alexa, Facebook,
and as a physical robot. Since its launch, RAMMAS has
processed close to 698,000 requests across various
channels. This bot application comes with capabilities
to take people’s requests (inquire and pay bills) 24/7,
process the data and make decisions with greater
accuracy. This is one of the best chatbot applications
that makes use of AI to the fullest.
Source: https://www.dewa.gov.ae/en/customer/
innovation/smart-initiatives/rammas
The impact of digitalisation and new technologies
on the water sector has been discussed by public
sector trade union ver.di in Germany, which devel-
oped a discussion paper on this topic adopted by its
federal specialist board for the sector in September
PUBLIC SERVICES INTERNATIONAL
201845. According to the union, the last investment
cycle carried out by public authorities in the German
water utilities sector at the beginning of the 1990s
had already widely introduced various forms of auto-
mation, remote-control technology and digital office
communication. Since the new investment cycle is
currently underway, it is likely that new technologies
such as the predictive maintenance of water pumps
will soon be introduced, even if cost-benefit calcula-
tions might not necessarily support such decisions.
According to ver.di, this also seems to be the result of
Germany’s dominant thinking about digitalisation and
technology, exemplified by the motto: “Everything
that can be digitalised will be digitalised”. The union
technology. In addition, public authorities must be

DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A SECTOR-SPECIFIC OVEROVERVIEW

holds that this approach is dangerous because the
prepared and ensure an analogue/manual backup
water sector is a public interest infrastructure of crit-
option for emergency situations: cyberattacks on in-
ical importance. These concerns are exacerbated by
dustrial sites have shown that critical infrastructures
the fact that decisions regarding the introduction of
such as water and energy require a specific security
specific technologies and digital change processes
approach and dedicated procedures involving highly
have often been made by actors outside the realm
qualified personnel. In the case of a disaster or emer-
of the local and municipal government authorities
gency, such as a terrorist attack or an earthquake, the
responsible for water services. Decisions about the
utility data system must be cut off from the Internet
digitalisation of water services have not only been
or from its automatic software and be able to oper-
taken at a level higher than the relevant authority
ate in a closed, protected loop and with a manual
responsible for the service delivery, but also often
backup option in order to avoid further, more serious
include input from private companies, which raises
damage. In such situations all systems based on the
questions of data ownership, processing and control
IoT and remote process control would stop function-
(e.g. when gathering the data of private users in re-
ing and it would fall to highly qualified employees to
lation to predictive maintenance and remote control,
‘physically’ do the job at the local waterworks to en-
or the leasing of water pumps from private providers
sure service safety and continuity.
instead of buying them).

Ver.di believes that such challenges require double

Similar concerns were highlighted by other inter-
track procedures in critical digitalised public utilities
viewed unions principally from Europe, such as ener-
to ensure human backup in case of digital system
gy trade union FNME/CGT of France, which was criti-
failure. If increasingly digitalised and highly automat-
cal about how smart meters and related services were
ed vital public utilities are to operate safely, workers
being introduced without providing users with enough
not only need new digital skills and qualifications, but
prior information and advice on how private providers
must also be able to run the system without digital
would use their personal and consumption data.
tools to maintain and keep the service running under
emergency situations. However, the union is high-
One key shortcoming that emerged from the con-
ly concerned that politicians and service providers
sultation of unions in the water sector is the strong
in the water sector are barely aware of this critical
and often exclusive focus given to technology over
requirement.
the human factor and the fact that workers’ partici-
pation and training needs in these processes are ne-
glected. According to the unions, any investment in
new technologies will fail unless it involves adequate
staff development plans and training that guarantee
that water utility workers are qualified to use the new

DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A LABOUR PERSPECTIVE 35

 Utilities: Who owns big data?
New technologies are increasingly linked to the Internet,
the gathering and analysis of data via remote-controlled
devices, and other cloud-based services. Such tech-
nologies and services are, according to German union
ver.di, principally provided by private tech companies.
As a result, sector-related decision makers are often un-
aware of the far-ranging impacts of their technology-re-
lated choices. For example, the decision not to buy a
new water pump and lease pump runtime service from
a private provider instead may seem a perfectly logi-
cal decision under a purely cost-efficient perspective.
DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A SECTOR-SPECIFIC OVEROVERVIEW
However, by making such decisions, public utilities, in-
stitutions, and authorities relinquish their control over
their own infrastructure.
‘Smart pumps’ also raise a bundle of new questions
that, according to ver.di, often remain unaddressed:
“Who does this pump notify when it has to be serviced,
for example? Is it the (public) control room or the (pri-
vate) provider/leaser? And who then decides whether
the notification must be followed up or disregarded –
the manufacturer or the control room colleagues? And
what is stored in the algorithm that generates the noti-
fication: a sustainability or a wear and tear logic? Who
defines this and who knows what is stored? Who owns
the data collected by this pump: the manufacturer, the
(waste) water operator or the municipality? Who may
use these data and under what conditions? What does
this mean for the protection of critical infrastructure?”
Source: Interview with a representative of ver.di’s
water section and ver.di 2018: Digitalisation in Water
Sector.
Digital sovereignty as the control over hardware tech-
nology and data is a crucial aspect of the governance
of any digitalisation process, especially when it re-
lates to critical infrastructure. The public water, en-
ergy and waste sectors are already converging into
integrated utility services, be it in terms of renewable
energies, virtual power stations or sewage sludge
recycling. Consequently, digitalisation will foster the
networking of systems, shared installations, software
and data across different utilities. For-profit opera-
tors could use these loopholes to their advantage
by finding a way to become gatekeepers between
36
public utilities, their departments and their users.
Smart water meters and pumps run by third parties
could damage public services by forcing responsible
public authorities to purchase data that would nor-
mally belong to them already and are a requirement
to run the utility effectively (e.g. changes in user be-
haviour, peak hours, breakdown frequency and loca-
tions, etc.) at a high price.
The private sector’s tendency to take over parts of
critical infrastructure was also stressed by represent-
atives from the U.S. public sector trade union, AFT,
who referred to the infrastructural problems caused
by old and rotten pipes in water provision, a sector in
which the private sector is already playing an impor-
tant role that is certainly due to increase with the in-
troduction of new digital technologies. According to
AFT, this trend is “very scary” because it will result in
public services depending more strongly on private,
for-profit business and will entail a loss of control
over public water infrastructure.
Significant differences in the level of digitalisation in
public utilities remain between and within countries
and world regions. The Confederation of Municipal
Workers (CTM), in Argentina, describes large dis-
parities in utility digitalisation across the country
as well as in logistics and transportation. In some
regions, private companies are dealing with ur-
ban waste, while in others public agencies prevail.
Furthermore, significant inequality exists in the ac-
cess to the infrastructure and skills necessary to use
modern technologies. Argentina’s administration has
invested in the development of cryptocurrencies and
blockchain technologies46, including for use in pub-
lic services: The city of Mendoza uses smart meters
for electricity services, and passengers can pay for
public transportation in bitcoins. However, this high-
tech reality coexists with horses still being used for
local transport.
PUBLIC SERVICES INTERNATIONAL
1.5 Health and Social Services
Digitalisation within health and social services is very
heterogeneous and encompasses a wide array of di-
mensions, ranging from the introduction of electronic
health records to new forms of employment relations
that have emerged in both public and private servic-
es through internet platforms (tele-health), the use
of mobile technologies in, for example, diagnosing
and tracking diseases (mHealth), and even the use
of collaborative robotics for surgeries or drones for
medicine and blood deliveries.
According to trade union comments received in the
context of this study, the digitalisation of hospital
medical services is primarily characterised by the
introduction of surgery robotics, electronic patient
files and digitised laboratory services. Hospital care
activities such as blood sugar metering have also be-
come increasingly automated47.
A representative of the health section of UNITE (UK)
reported additional aspects of healthcare service dig-
italisation, such as communication between patients
and healthcare providers via apps and websites, au-
tomation of history taking and medical diagnosis, or
outsourcing medical and health data processing (for
further details see chapter 3.1).
New technologies and digital tools have certainly im-
proved various areas of health and care services. For
example, in most countries, rural areas do not receive
adequate or comparable levels of healthcare service
as urban areas. In these cases, digital communication
tools and tele-medicine are providing added value and
benefiting citizens and patients (see textbox below).
DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A LABOUR PERSPECTIVE
DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A SECTOR-SPECIFIC OVEROVERVIEW
Canada: Establishing a single health
platform
The SFPQ trade union from Quebec, Canada reported
that one of Quebec’s major current digitalisation pro-
jects was the introduction of the Carnet Santé Québec,
an online service that provides citizens with a single
health platform comprised of different information and
services. It allows citizens and medical staff to consult
the drugs received in pharmacies, medical sampling
results or medical imaging examination reports, book
or cancel appointments with a family doctor, and view
their appointment history48.
Denmark: Added value of tele-medicine and
its impact on health work
The tele-medical ulcer assessment programme op-
erational in all Danish regions and municipalities has
changed the way in which nurses communicate with
the hospital when seeing ulcer patients in their homes.
The nurses communicate with the hospital via a web
journal accessible from a cell phone or tablet. They up-
load photos of the ulcers to the journal. The hospital
can then assess the ulcer without seeing the patient.
Municipal nurses felt positive about the introduction of
this new service and felt that digitalisation would lead to
job enrichment and employee satisfaction.
Source: Lethbridge, J.2015: Digitalisation of local au-
thority services in Europe. A briefing paper commis-
sioned by EPSU/CEMR
37
 Trade unions have also recognised the positive im-
pacts of digitalisation in countries that have so far
been unable to provide adequate healthcare cover-
age to their population.
According to the trade union representatives of
Burkina Faso’s Doctors Trade Union (Syndicat des
Médecins du Burkina, SYMEB), the national health-
care system is now able to provide better services
considering they are more accessible from every-
where. In Burkina Faso, documents—including med-
ical files—are now accessible through the Internet,
and digitalisation has become a general trend
to which a specific ministry is being dedicated.
Important investments were made and hospitals are
now providing a wider range of services compared
to the past. Public services are now also better or-
ganised and controlled. The interviewee added that
DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A SECTOR-SPECIFIC OVEROVERVIEW
digitalisation was also a way to fight corruption and
prevent medicine theft, a common occurrence in
hospital pharmacy stocks. Nonetheless, the risk of
medical data misuse remains present and doctor/pa-
tient confidentiality may not be fully guaranteed once
medical data go digital. The union reported several
such cases, including a situation where a midwife
knew of a malformed child and circulated that infor-
mation via email without consent.
Conversely, digital-first approaches in health and so-
cial services can also result in new constraints and
worse working conditions for workers when - as oc-
curred in Nepal or India—rural health workers with a
small income have no other option but to go through
smartphone apps for recording medical data.
The health sector has emerged as a profitable market
for profit-oriented digital tech multinationals. Union
representatives from both European and Asian coun-
tries reported that telemedicine, surgery robotics,
predictive diagnostics, wearable sensors and a host
of new health apps were transforming healthcare
significantly. Healthcare is also a core sector for ma-
chine learning and artificial intelligence testing.
Even in tech-savvy countries, the current wave of
digital change and innovation has caused some anxi-
ety. This stems from the obvious fact that large multi-
national tech companies are driving the proliferation
of untested, unregulated digital health tools, their
main motivation being the gathering data to explore
new, profitable avenues of medicine, health services
and business models.
38
Surgery robotics: not so rosy
The example of surgery robotics shows that new tech-
nologies linked to very costly investments do not al-
ways result in the promised benefits and added value.
The Da Vinci surgical system, commercialised by the
US-based company Intuitive Surgical, is one of the
best known and most widespread technologies used
for urology surgeries such as prostatectomies or hys-
terectomies. The system enables a human surgeon to
watch via a 3D video and control a robot’s arms inside
the patient's body.
According to information released by the company,
more than 2,500 Da Vinci robots are currently active in
U.S. hospitals, with over 600 more in Europe, including
85 in Germany. The robots are used in private as well
as public hospitals49. The company also reported that
more than 650,000 surgeries were carried out using
the system in 2017. Most prostate surgeries in the US
today are carried out by robots and the Da Vinci System
is monopolising this market. However, according to var-
ious studies50, surgeries using the Da Vinci system are
not only significantly more expensive and longer last-
ing, but are also failing to deliver the promised health
advantages over conventional practice (e.g. reduced
risks, better/quicker healing process, etc.).
When it comes to artificial intelligence in medicine
and health diagnostics, links to the business inter-
ests of digital corporate giants are more than obvious.
In 2015 in the UK, consultants working at the Royal
Free hospital trust in London approached DeepMind,
a Google-owned AI firm that had no previous expe-
rience in healthcare, asking to develop AI software
based on the trust’s patient data. In 2017 the press
revealed that the health records of 1.6 million identi-
fiable patients were transferred without their knowl-
edge to servers contracted by Google to process the
data on behalf of DeepMind51.
In July 2018, US medical centres reported that the
world’s most prominent AI tool, IBM's Watson super-
computer, gave unsafe recommendations for treat-
ing cancer patients. Many incidents have illustrated
that the system, once touted as the future of can-
cer research, has frequently issued bad advice. In
one case it suggested a cancer patient with severe
bleeding be given a drug that could cause the bleed-
ing to worsen.
PUBLIC SERVICES INTERNATIONAL
According to the Korean Health and Medical Workers
Union (KMHU), digital technologies and the growing
dependency on private corporations have drastical-
ly changed health and medical care in South Korea,
and several aspects related to the Korean medical
and health sector’s digitalisation appear deeply prob-
lematic. For example, hospital management tends to
purchase costly high-tech medical systems that are
not always necessary. As a result, for these systems
to be cost-efficient, they need to run on a 24-hour
basis, which may cause patients to take unneces-
sary tests. This leads to excessive examinations and
diagnoses, all paid for by the public health insurance
system.
According to KMHU, remote diagnosis systems are
not a necessity in Korea, as the country is relatively
small and doctors and nurses do not need to travel
long distances to visit patients. It is therefore rath-
er likely that small-sized hospitals would disappear,
should remote diagnosis and treatment become
more widespread and easily permitted. This might
have a negative impact on the Korean healthcare
system.

The case of South Korea: Digitalisation, robotics and AI in medical and health care

DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A SECTOR-SPECIFIC OVEROVERVIEW

The Korean government’s digital and healthcare development strategies are actively promoting disruptive technol-
ogies, big data and AI in health and medical care. The current healthcare strategy has a time horizon of 2022 and
includes such programmes and initiatives as using AI in innovative and more cost-efficient drug development, estab-
lishing a smart clinical trial system, encouraging the convergence of smart technologies in medical devices, reforming
the healthcare ecosystem, and developing a pilot system to produce and manage big data in the healthcare sector that
should become standard by 2021.

As of 2016, nearly 60 Da Vinci surgical systems were in use in 45 hospitals across the country. The IBM Watson system
had already been introduced to Korea in 2016 and five hospitals currently use the system despite its accuracy being
controversial.

The following forms of digitalisation in health and medical care were additionally highlighted:

* Video technologies have dramatically and constantly progressed, from X-ray to CT (computer tomography), PET-
CET (positron emission tomography) and MRI (magnetic resonance imaging). The recently invented small-sized
and mobile Vscan ultrasound device is also going to replace the conventional stethoscope.

* Medical records and their management are fully digitised. Today around 90% of Korean hospitals use Electronic
Record Systems (ERM).

* Hospitals have started developing 'smart' patient and hospital management systems, which are based on big data
and include guidance for patients via smartphone apps, amongst other things.

* A hospital has signed a memorandum of understanding with GE Healthcare Korea in order to develop a 'Smart
Hospital System' for a new branch hospital. It will contain a 'clinical integrative situation room' designed by GE
Healthcare. The system should provide the physician with the patient’s biological data in real time in order to
reduce the time needed for decision-making and accurate treatment, particularly in emergency situations. The
system also promises to reduce medical and personnel costs.

Korea has also developed remote medical diagnosis techniques for both doctors and nurses that reach further than in
most other countries in the world. The government, hospital management as well as digital tech companies would also
like to develop new ways to treat patients remotely by using tools such as smartphones.

Source: Korean Health and Medical Workers Union (KMHU)

DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A LABOUR PERSPECTIVE 39


The governance of private data use is seen by KMHU
as a critical issue. The planned integration of data
gathered by various public institutions (health insur-
ance, national health institute, cancer centres, etc.)
into one big, single health and medical data platform
DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A SECTOR-SPECIFIC OVEROVERVIEW
has raised concerns that the data might be shared
with private medical institutions to make profit.
According to KMHU, the risk that medical and South
Korean healthcare public services may be privatised
is therefore quite real. Indeed, the ambitious targets
of the Korean government’s digital healthcare strate-
gy are closely linked to the business interests of the
Samsung conglomerate, including branches such as
Samsung Life Insurance, Samsung Hospital, Samsung
SDS (IT services) as well as Samsung Biologics and
Samsung Bioepis. For Samsung, the medical and
healthcare sector is an engine of future growth that
has gained massive investments. Public policy initia-
tives and private business interests are also closely
linked in areas such as supporting the establishment
of private hospitals for medical tourism, fostering big
data and remote medical services based on 5G tech-
nology and new drug development.
Finally, in the absence of an effective and compre-
hensive governance system, eHealth can cause
serious, possibly life-threatening risks to patients’
medical data security and to the ability of health in-
stitutions to deliver public services, as the 2017 ma-
jor cyber-attacks on the UK’s NHS demonstrate. The
attacks affected 16 British hospitals bringing health
care and doctors' surgeries across Britain to a halt,
forcing them to turn patients away and cancel ap-
pointments after the country’s computer systems
were crippled52.
As regards social services, such as social care and
work, homecare or residential care, new digital tech-
nologies are increasingly used in order to increase
40
efficiency and productivity through the automation
of more and more processes, administrative work
and care and counselling work. This is mainly done
by introducing assistant systems or even by com-
pletely substituting machines for humans in certain
tasks. Key fields of application for such changes are:
zz Electronic documentation, i.e. the gathering of
patient and client data in e-files that are often
linked to the social or care services delivered but
may also consist of further data;
zz Technical assistant systems such as ‘smart’
floors in residential care facilities (or at home)
that notice if someone falls, or stoves that auto-
matically turn off;
zz Technical assistant systems such as GPS detec-
tion or video recording are also being applied in
the field of social work in order to guide and pro-
tect social workers, e.g. in dangerous or difficult
work environments;
zz Telecare, telecounselling, telemonitoring or tel-
econsultation that make it possible to organise
diagnosis or treatment of patients or clients over
long distances, namely in rural areas;
zz Care robotics are technical systems that partially
or fully support or replace care activities and ser-
vices. This could be, for example, robots trans-
porting medicine or laundry, robotic suits that
help to move patients, robots similar to pets or
cuddly toys who are able to react to a patient's
moods and emotions and try to influence them
positively.
Artificial intelligence is also becoming more wide-
spread in social services. Decisions regarding the
need for home visits or the assessment of applica-
tions for social assistance, retraining or welfare ben-
efits are increasingly supported or even automatically
made by AI applications. A recent report on the use
of AI has highlighted the example of the Swedish city
of Trelleborg where parts of social benefits manage-
ment have been automated. New applications are
automatically checked and crosschecked with other
related databases. A decision is then automatically
issued by the system on the basis of these results53.
PUBLIC SERVICES INTERNATIONAL

1.6 Education and culture
services
The world of education, learning and teaching is
currently experiencing significant change resulting
from the application of new technologies, learning
and teaching methods, and digitalisation that is in-
creasingly shaped by AI and machine learning. AI in
U.S. education is expected grow by 47.5% between
2018 and 2022 according to a report on the Artificial
Intelligence Market in the U.S. Education Sector54.
Even though most experts believe that teacher pres-
ence is irreplaceable, many changes will be made to
the parameters of a teacher’s job and to educational
best practices.
Digital technologies and applications are increasingly
used to enhance student learning through interactive
programmes, including virtual tutoring that consid-
ers the individual learning process. Further examples
are individualised learning plans for students that
are based on individual strengths and weaknesses
and composed by data processing service centres
belonging to private companies, or academic study
courses individually chosen for each student, re-
flecting cognitive strengths and professional career
assumptions. Digital technologies also play an in-
creasing role in the way companies select job appli-
cants, for example by using gaming programmes that
forecast the economic success of candidates.
DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A LABOUR PERSPECTIVE
DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A SECTOR-SPECIFIC OVEROVERVIEW
Digitalisation in education is occurring quickly be-
cause large multinational tech companies have dis-
covered public education to be a lucrative business
opportunity. As highlighted by the U.S. education
trade union, AFT, “with advances of digital tech-
nology, artificial intelligence, e-tablets and robotics
becoming the focus of a global edu-business, we
stand on the cusp of public education becoming a
technology product that parents and their communi-
ties are forced to buy from for-profit corporations.55”
According to AFT, the digitalisation of education,
teaching and learning is currently very much driven
by the private business and profit-related interests
of vendors such as Cogni, IBM, Microsoft, Google,
Apple or Pearson. Too often, investments in digital
technologies are bypassing teachers, brick-and-
mortar schools and government departments of
education.
In Canada, according to a survey carried out in 2017 by
the trade union federation CSQ56 amongst 130,000
employees with some 9,000 responses in the edu-
cation sector, employees consider new digital tech-
nologies to be a positive element in classrooms. The
survey’s main findings show that they promote coop-
eration and motivation in education for both staff and
students. However, the survey also raised concerns
regarding unequal access to such technologies and
the fact that the border between working and private
life is becoming increasingly blurred, which leads to
increases in work intensity.
41
 The key findings of the CSQ survey are as follows:

zz 97% of all education personnel are in favour of

the use of digital tools.

zz The use of personal technological equipment to

carry out professional tasks is a daily reality, as
was confirmed by 74% of all surveyed members.

zz Tasks accomplished on one’s own time, outside

regular work hours (reading emails, making/an-
swering phone calls, other professional tasks
related to digital technology), have increased
zz Among responding members, 77% identified
and significantly increased for 76.5% of all
insufficient time to take ownership of and master
respondents.
various digital tools as being the main obstacle
to their use.
zz Respondents noted an increase or significant in-
crease in various aspects of their work, namely
zz Close to 70% of respondents had undergone
the diversity of their duties (76%), the control
training on the use of digital tools, but they were
over the execution of their tasks (management
short training courses focussing on the basics
of time and process, creating material whether
of digital tools. In fact, over 75% stated having
educational or administrative or other - 74%) and
completed only eight hours or less of training in
the number of tasks needed to be carried out
the past twelve months.
within a specific time period (65%).
Considering these challenges, CSQ regards both
zz Nearly 51% of individuals surveyed consid-
training and upskilling education personnel and the
ered their skills to be extensive and excellent.
regulatory frameworks that should be defined in col-
However, there seems to be a strong need to
lective agreements as vitally important in guarantee-
provide educational personnel with more and
ing a transition into a form of digitalised education
better techno-pedagogical skills. These skills are
that does not harm working conditions and protects
crucial in supporting both pupils and students
individual workers.
with the use of digital tools so as to allow them to
improve their skills and produce new knowledge.

zz A total of 76.5% of respondents reported that

digital tools have improved or significantly im-
proved work sharing and collaboration among
education personnel on the one hand and com-
munication, namely with colleagues, parents,
pupils and students on the other.
zz Close to 70% of respondents stated having
noticed an improvement or a significant
improvement in both the motivation and learning
of pupils and students due to the use of digital
technology.
1.7 Security, border and
emergency services
New digital technologies such as bodycams, GPS
tracking or drones, and increasing use of AI are hav-
ing a significant impact on services such as police,
security and prison work, border control, firefight-
ing and emergency services. Increasingly, workers
in these services are getting packed with high tech
devices and tools.

42 PUBLIC SERVICES INTERNATIONAL

 Are digital technologies making us safer?

In 2017, the Chicago Police Department created six high-tech police hubs located throughout the city’s more
crime-ridden neighbourhoods. Dubbed Strategic Decision Support Centres, the hubs are a blend of human
expertise and high-end technology, including surveillance cameras, gunshot detection platforms, predictive
mapping and data analytics.

Gunshot detection systems represent a different technology trend that has benefited the police. By combining
sensors—an array of microphones—with spatial mapping, police have a new way of responding rapidly to
violent incidents. With the rise of gun violence and an increase in illegal guns, city police have often been one
step behind when a spate of gunshots rings out in a neighbourhood. Gunshot detection technology, the most
notable offering from ShotSpotter, offers a faster and more accurate response than to 911 calls, say experts.
As of September 2018, 95 cities in the U.S. and South Africa were using ShotSpotter’s technology, according
to the company.

Sensors that can pinpoint gunfire are just one kind of surveillance the police can now use. Video surveillance
has been around for a while but advances in technology have magnified its capabilities. Chicago has built the
largest municipal camera integration platform in the country, with more than 35,000 government and private-
sector video cameras on tap to watch and record what is happening on the streets. Another technology—
license plate readers— uses character recognition to read the numbers and letters on license plates and quickly
compare the plate information with hotlists of stolen cars, or drivers whose licenses have been suspended or
revoked.

Less comprehensive, but just as leading edge, is the use of chatbots to automate some of the work done by
police dispatchers. The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department has launched a bot that helps deputies receive
information while in their cruiser. Normally, deputies call their dispatchers to check on license plate numbers or
run a profile check on a suspect. The department has been working with Microsoft to allow deputies to access
the same information via a voice-activated assistant, which can pull the information from back-end databases
and “tell” the officers what they need to know in real time.

Less mature, but certainly more transformative, is the growing field of crime analytics, including predictive
policing and artificial intelligence. As the amount of data available to law enforcement increases, the need
to turn it into information and ultimately intelligence has opened the door to analytics tools, including some
AI techniques that can automate certain human tasks. “AI is the next logical evolution in policing,” said CPD’s
Jonathan Lewin. “We have all this data, a lot of sensors, and incoming information from other open sources,
including crime tips from citizens. So, plugging all of this into some kind of engine to gain insights and make
connections that wouldn’t be obvious to a human is the next logical step.”

Source: http://www.govtech.com/public-safety/Drones-AI-Bodycams-Is-Technology-Making-Us-Safer.html

DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A LABOUR PERSPECTIVE 43

 The U.S. example also demonstrates the strong
linkage that can be established between public au-
thorities and private companies: the Chicago Police
Department (CPD) is working with technology from
Microsoft and Genetec, a Canadian firm, and has built
a high-end, integrated decision-support system that
is giving CPD’s support centres the insight need-
ed to reduce crime. New York City has built a similar
platform, known as the Domain Awareness System,
which turns big data from sensors, cameras, license
plate readers and other devices into actionable infor-
mation for police officers.
An AFT representative emphasised that new technol-
ogies such as automated alarms or emergency but-
tons have positive impacts for the security of workers.
New technologies such as drones, satellite monitor-
ing and sensors also improve both performance and
security in fields such as firefighting, emergency ser-
vices in natural disasters and other incidents that are
often extremely dangerous.
A recent report on AI and automated decision making
shows that many European projects and initiatives are
44
developing in this field. The study demonstrates that
EU institutions and member states are actively de-
ploying automated decision making and automation
technologies in police, border control and prison ser-
vices (see textbox below).
The U.S. and European examples are just a snapshot
of the developments occurring in security-related
services that are being driven by digital technologies,
machine learning and artificial intelligence. New tech-
nologies such as drones deployed for border control
or policy operations, iris scanners or biometric appli-
cations are also being acquired by the police, pris-
on, and court or border control services of several
Asian and African countries57. China has emerged as
a new and ambitious actor of the development and
provision of high-tech security services, increasingly
competing for new markets, for example in Africa58.
The fast pace of digital change in police, security and
emergency services and the growing dependence on
private, for-profit actors already has worrying implica-
tions for civic, political, and privacy rights issues that
need to be urgently addressed. q
PUBLIC SERVICES INTERNATIONAL
 Automated decision making in police, border control, prison and security services in
the European Union

* eu-LISA, the “European Agency for the Operational Management of large-scale IT Systems in the Area of
Freedom, Security and Justice”, is now managing the “strengthened” databases and applications VIS,
SISII and EURODAC together. This is leading to the creation of a “biometric core data system”.

* iBorderCtrl is a system tested in Hungary, Greece and Latvia to screen non-EU nationals at EU borders,
using automated interviews with a virtual border guard, based on “deception detection technology”.

* DANTE (“Detecting and analysing terrorist-related online contents and financing activities”) is an exper-
imental project, funded by the European Commission within the Horizon2020 programme, and aimed
at using automated decision-making against terrorism. Eighteen EU countries are involved. DANTE is
described as a “framework” that supplies “innovative knowledge mining, information fusion, and auto-
mated reasoning techniques and services” for the discovery and analysis of terrorist networks.

* In Belgium, a local police department on the Belgian coast started implementing a predictive policing
system in 2016. According to the police, the crimes that the system is most effective at predicting are
burglaries and vehicle theft.

* In France, automated processing of traffic offences became a massive revenue stream—and the govern-
ment agency responsible, ANTAI, ignores legal requirements to disclose their algorithms.

* In Germany, the city of Mannheim launched an "intelligent video surveillance" project based on motion
pattern recognition. The video system can automatically detect brawls and trigger alarms.

* In Italy, the “e-Security” project is based on the idea that “in any urban environment, crime and de-
viance concentrate in some areas (streets, squares, etc.), and that past victimization predicts future
victimization”. It is supposed to provide complex automated assistance to law enforcement agencies.

* In the Netherlands, some Dutch municipalities use the SyRI “Risk Indication System”. Based on certain
risk indicators, the software allegedly detects an “increased risk of irregularities”.

* A system used by the Slovenian Police at borders automatically matches travellers to “other police data”
such as criminal files. The Human Rights Ombudsman and the Information Commissioner stated that
such a system is not constitutional and filed a formal complaint in 2017.

* In Spain, the VeriPol tool is used to indicate the probability that a complaint made to the police is false
by automatically analysing calls using natural language processing and machine learning techniques.

* RisCanvi is a statistical risk assessment system used in Catalan prisons, similar to LSI-R (Canada),
Compass (US) and OaSys (UK). Although actual decisions are still made by professional humans, the AI
tool makes predictions on which the decisions are based.

Source: Selection and summaries based on information in: Algorithm Watch 2019: Automating Society -
Taking Stock of Automated Decision-Making in the EU.

DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A LABOUR PERSPECTIVE 45


IMPACT OF DIGITALIZATION ON
PUBLIC SERVICES QUALITY,
EFFICIENCY AND ACCESS
IMPACT OF DIGITALISATION ON PUBLIC SERVICES QUALITY, EFFICIENCY AND ACCESS
2.1 Disentangling myth,
ideology and reality
T
he general conclusion emerging from the con-
sultation carried out with public service trade
unions involved in this study would seem to be
that new technologies, automation and digitalisation,
“if implemented in a way that strengthens the ethos
of delivering public services for the common good,
could have the potential to promote more citizen
and worker participation in the design and delivery
of public services.59” They are tools that can reduce
the strain and repetitiveness of work and have a pos-
itive impact on working conditions, work autonomy
and occupational health and safety. If used in an ap-
propriate way and within an appropriate framework
they can also enhance public service quality and
efficiency. These benefits were mentioned by the
U.S. union AFT in the case of health care and medi-
cal advice and support made available in remote are-
as such as Alaska, or road and railway track security
controlled by drones in sparsely populated areas.
However, interviewees also pointed out that these
improvements were far from automatic. They depend
46
2.
on the presence of specific objectives for the use
and introduction of technologies, specific regulators
and social framework conditions, and adequate gov-
ernance frameworks that oversee their impacts and
developments. Nordic unions particularly highlighted
the need to clearly define the objectives of any dig-
ital change project: is it cost reduction or improve-
ments to the quality of public services to serve the
public interest?
Some union representative expressed serious con-
cern that digitalisation and automation might be used
“as a cover to erode the public-service ethos and
orientate the public sector towards a model of pro-
viding services that more closely resembles the
private sector.” This is the main message currently
pushed by international business consultancies, ad-
vising governments and public institutions.
A brochure by a private business consultancy firm in
South Africa reads:
PUBLIC SERVICES INTERNATIONAL
 IMPACT OF DIGITALISATION ON PUBLIC SERVICES QUALITY, EFFICIENCY AND ACCESS

“Automation in the public sector is

expected to be the new normal owing to its
huge potential to improve service delivery, revenue re-
alization and cost savings. South Africa, although progressing well
on this front, still has a long way to go. There is evidence from industries such as
banking, finance and insurance, transportation and healthcare that have started adopting automation for
better results. Automation is also growing in the public sector as governments are focused on efficient and
improved service delivery.60”

DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A LABOUR PERSPECTIVE 47

 Similar promotional messages are echoed by pow-
erful liberal think tanks and lobby institutions. The
Brookings Institute frequently highlights the cru-
cial role of digitalisation and new digital technolo-
gies for the achievement of development goals in
Global South. Digitalisation is portrayed as the mag-
ic wand for economic and financial development
as well as “leapfrogging”61 social and educational
development62.
However, the introduction of digitalisation and new
IMPACT OF DIGITALISATION ON PUBLIC SERVICES QUALITY, EFFICIENCY AND ACCESS
technologies in public services in Africa and other
regions continues to rise critical questions: What are
the motivations behind technology export and digi-
talisation programmes? How are technologies used,
who is excluded from their use and why? Bearing in
mind that technologies are not neutral but have cer-
tain values inscribed in them, how are digital technol-
ogies designed, and what impact does this have on
individual opportunities for action as well as societal
futures? Does the export of technologies by tech
companies and development aid agencies and pro-
grammes that promote digitalisation of government
and public services creates new dependencies?
The following chapter gathers evidence and exam-
ples on some of these questions and the impact of
digitalisation on public service quality, efficiency and
access, as well as related issues such as data privacy
and security.
2.2 Impact on public
service access and on the
relationship between public
services, citizens and users
Access and the interaction between citizens and
public service providers are increasingly channelled
via the Internet and digital devices. This transforma-
tion is being further accelerated by national ‘digital
first’ agendas or ‘digital only’ principles in public ad-
ministrations and governance.
48
Digital media are in some cases becoming the only
channel of communication between users, public
administrations, and services, which raises ques-
tions about equal access for all to public services.
Older people, people with disabilities and people
in low income groups are most likely to experience
problems in accessing the Internet due to lack of ac-
cess to hardware, unreliable or inaccessible power
access and/or lack of digital skills.
In the UK, an estimated nine million citizens are dig-
itally excluded from digitalised services.14 The AFT
union also reported that the U.S. are characterised by
a significant digital divide that has failed to improve
over the last decade. Even in New York, around 30%
of the population has no access to broadband com-
munication infrastructure.
There is another important aspect to the accessibility
issue: union representatives emphasised the risk of
widening the gap between countries and regions with
good, digital infrastructures and those that do not.
Such gaps often coincide with affluent versus disad-
vantaged regions and/or urban versus rural areas.
Public service unions have also accumulated evi-
dence that digitalised public services should not re-
place the personal relationship between public ser-
vices and their users. While some simple, repetitive
administrative processes can be digitalised, it would
be highly problematic to apply the same logic to
complex processes based on the judgements and/or
decisions made by public service workers, like me-
diating social benefits applications, family support
services, taking medical decisions or issue judicial
rulings, just to mention a few. Here citizens continue
to expect and need direct and personalised commu-
nication and human decision making63.
In this context, it was also emphasized by trade un-
ion interviewees that public authorities need to be
aware of the risks presented by leaving certain user
groups behind, whether they be the elderly, those
with no knowledge or experience of the Internet and
electronic services, or migrants with little or no com-
petence in the national language.
In Germany, the eGovernment Monitor 2018 shows
that there is a clear link between acceptance of
PUBLIC SERVICES INTERNATIONAL
digitalised services and educational attainment (and
possibly income levels): citizens with a higher ed-
ucational background tend to be far more in favour
of digitalised services than those from with lower
qualifications.
Commenting on the fact that Denmark has already
implemented an obligatory ‘digital only’ principle for
many public services, a representative of the HK
Kommunal trade union noted that 90% of Danish cit-
izens would still prefer direct and personal contact
and communication with public administrations and
services. Furthermore, only 20% of Danes think that
public services should be as cheap as possible64.
Therefore, for Danish citizens quality matters more
than cost-effectiveness.
Interviews with trade union representatives largely in-
dicated that the impact of digitalised public services
on service quality, efficiency as well as citizens’ trust
in public service integrity is mixed. While in regions
with poor access to digital services, interviewees
noted that digitalisation can contribute to enhance
trust in public services (for instance by increasing
objectivity in decision-making and reducing corrup-
tion), others from countries with relatively well-devel-
oped social protection systems stressed the oppo-
site—citizens’ trust in public services might erode if
decisions taken by public administrations were based
on automated processes or made by machines.
Furthermore, increasingly digitalised work process-
es and organisation can have a strong negative ef-
fect on workers’ motivation: in Sweden, the Union of
Professionals (Akademikerförbundet SSR) reported
that there was evidence of social workers leaving
their jobs because they felt that decisions about so-
cial care were being completely automated, leaving
no place for the exercise of professional judgement.
The HK union in Denmark mentioned how digitali-
sation limits the roles of case workers and reduces
face-to-face contact, both of which can be extreme-
ly important when dealing with sensitive issues such
as child welfare, when decisions have to be made
concerning the appropriate measures to ensure the
child’s safety and well-being65.
The issue of public service access and the impor-
tance of having adequate numbers of direct points
DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A LABOUR PERSPECTIVE
of contact between public service providers and cit-
izens/users that do only not rely on digital tools but
provide access to workers in flesh and bones is as
even more relevant in other world regions. According
to a representative of the National Confederation of
Social Security Workers in Brazil, CNTSS/CUT, while
new digital offers and services have brought benefits
to public service efficiency and quality (see section
1.2 above), substantial parts of the country where
Internet infrastructure is poor or lacking and people
lack the digital/IT skills and related tools there is no
IMPACT OF DIGITALISATION ON PUBLIC SERVICES QUALITY, EFFICIENCY AND ACCESS
real access to such services. This digitalized public
service access gap has been strongly highlighted by
union representatives from Argentina, India as well as
from Burkina Faso.
Digitalisation can therefore not be regarded as a
panacea for the problems related to public service
provision. In 2019, the President of Uganda, Yoweri
Museveni argued that before investing into digital
technologies and AI African countries must address
the urgent lack of vital infrastructures and public ser-
vices such as roads, railways, electricity or water and
education. “People who are enthusiastic about ar-
tificial intelligence are those who already have in-
frastructure and human resources developed”, he
said66.
2.3 Impact on privacy and
security issues
From our global review it emerges that the risks
linked to the privatisation of personal data gathered
by government functions and digitalised public ser-
vices are considerable67: even if governments collect
data in line with existing data protection legislation,
there is a risk that personal data will be shared with
private companies as legal frameworks have not yet
effectively been updated or developed to keep up
with the new risks brought about by the meddling
of digital technologies in people’s private lives. The
‘digital first’ approach jointly with the outsourcing of
digital system development, and the privatisation
of some government functions pose a threat to the
49
 protection of personal data of citizens/public service
users and workers alike.
Unions mentioned the ‘once-only principle67’ as a
major concern for personal data security.
IMPACT OF DIGITALISATION ON PUBLIC SERVICES QUALITY, EFFICIENCY AND ACCESS
The health sector has been at the centre of many
scandals and incidents regarding patients’ data secu-
rity and privacy. Denmark was traditionally regarded
as a leader in terms of responsible patients’ data use
and processing as regards confidentiality of person-
al data and overall data security. However, in 2014,
authorities shut down the Danish General Practices
Database (DAMD) due to security concerns: the me-
dia reported that the system was going as far as to
collecting and storing illegally patient information
about sexually transmitted diseases, panic attacks
and other personal issues68.
The Norwegian Union of Municipal and General
Employees, Fagforbundet mentioned the case of
the decision to outsource patients’ data processing
and ICT systems of the Norwegian South-Eastern
Regional Health Authority to external private provid-
ers to cut costs. Workers and their union repeated-
ly warned the health authority, yet the project went
ahead. As a result, privately contracted workers in
Asia and Eastern Europe were wrongfully granted
access to sensitive information of almost 3 million
Norwegians whose confidentiality rights were com-
promised, and the outsourcing agreement had to be,
which was consequently cancelled at a high cost for
the health authority70.
Despite many similar scandals worldwide, the com-
modification of personal data through the outsourc-
ing of public service functions continues to occur on
a systematic and global scale because it serves the
interests of the private businesses engaging in dig-
italisation projects and remains quite unchallenged
by national and international legislation. A 2017 UK
scientific paper openly criticised the deal between
Google and the Royal Free Hospital in London, which
allowed the use of 1.6 million patients’ NHS data to
50
create an app that would alert clinicians in case of
acute kidney injury. The paper argues that the col-
laboration “has suffered from a lack of clarity and
openness, with issues of privacy and power.71”
This points to the fact that besides the issues of and
citizens/patiens/users’ privacy and data protection,
there is a more substantial underlying issue about
power, influence and conflict between the public
service general interest and the private corporate
interests.
2.4 Impact on efficiency
and quality
Union interviewees across all world regions noted
that the use of new technologies such had neither a
positive nor a negative impact on the public service
efficiency and quality and rather referred the impor-
tant role of introducing them under good framework
conditions, careful, participative planning and tight
monitoring of implementation and impact.
The medical staff and doctors trade union SYMEB in
Burkina Faso highlighted the positive impacts of dig-
italisation on medical services and on public services
in general, noting that they became better organised,
controlled and more accessible to all. According to
the union representative, digitalisation could be used
to fight and prevent corruption and crime— such as
the theft of medical supplies and medicines from
hospitals. However, it also posed risks regarding the
misuse of private medical data and information.
Interviewees mentioned based on experiences that
when digitalisation projects that are primarily driv-
en by cost-reduction objectives, as they will likely
fail or cause unexpected negative effects such as
frustration amongst public service workers, reduced
user trust in public services, etc. Union representa-
tives also stressed that public service digitalisation
PUBLIC SERVICES INTERNATIONAL
 Digitalisation and centralisation of the tax collection system in Denmark

Officially, the goal of this reform was to create an open, holistic administration with citizens and businesses
at its centre and enhance legal certainty and uniformity. However, unofficially, and maybe more importantly, it

IMPACT OF DIGITALISATION ON PUBLIC SERVICES QUALITY, EFFICIENCY AND ACCESS

aimed to achieve (massive) savings thanks to synergies, economies of scale, reduced duplication, regulatory
simplification and the modernization of IT systems.

The reform’s key measures included the establishment of a single authority (SKAT) that would serve as the
main point of contact for both citizens and businesses and lead to the drastic reduction of local offices. The
reform involved extensive digitalisation measures, such as the reduction of telephone contact centres and
concentration on digital information channels.

On the positive side, trade union experts highlighted that the digitalisation process as such, i.e. as regards
its technological dimension, was quite successful. Today, the system overseeing the taxation of employees
in Denmark is one of the most automated and digitalised in the world. Tax is automatically deducted before
payment of salary by the employer and reported digitally to the tax administration. The high degree of
digitalisation, automation, digital communication and effective digital reporting systems have made things
easier for most employees and for employers. Furthermore, the system is quite reliable and very difficult to
hack.

However, it also has its problems, most of which are related to the massive reduction in staff as well as
local contact points. Due to this, tax authorities have noticed that the volume of unpaid taxes has increased
quite significantly, tax compliance amongst businesses has fallen, several important cases of tax fraud have
occurred and, generally, the public’s trust in the Danish tax administration has weakened. Consequently,
independent auditors, business consultancies and academic researchers have demanded more personnel
resources in order to rebuild trust and efficiency.

According to the HK trade union, a certain number of lessons can be drawn from the SKAT case and may well
be relevant for digitalisation projects in other public services:

* Digitalisation, standardisation and centralization were closely linked and driven by the motivation to
achieve significant cost reductions.

* In the SKAT case, savings were made in advance and employees were made redundant before the IT
systems fully came into play. Even when massive IT problems occurred after the system’s implementa-
tion, decision makers and the treasury continued to reduce personnel.

* The project was designed and implemented without any serious employee involvement in spite of union
requests.

* All in all, the digitalisation project was based on excessive and unrealistic technological optimism.

Source: Interview with HK Kommunal72.

DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A LABOUR PERSPECTIVE 51

 initiatives that were only designed at central lev-
el and implemented in a top-down fashion without
worker involvement and participation on the ground
also tended to fail because they did not consider the
concrete realities and conditions of public service
delivery.
Another example is that of the failed introduction of a
new IT system to the NHS in the UK73. Launched in
2002, and involving private IT and consulting com-
panies such as Accenture, CSC, Fujitsu and British
IMPACT OF DIGITALISATION ON PUBLIC SERVICES QUALITY, EFFICIENCY AND ACCESS
Telecom, the project aimed to set up the NHS Care
Records Service in such a way that health profes-
sionals could access relevant parts of patient records
as well as X-rays, prescriptions and electronic book-
ing. Deemed the world’s largest civil IT programme
with an initial budget of £6.2 billion, it became also a
disaster case. By 2006, several milestones had not
been met and the cost of the project had nearly dou-
bled. In 2008, the UK Public Accounts Committee
found that the new system did not include any clini-
cal functions, meaning that the needs of the clinical
staff had not been met. In fact, there was a wide lack
of commitment on the part of NHS staff because the
project was introduced in a centralised and strictly
top-down decision-making process without enough
participation of workers and user engagement. In
October 2011, the Department of Health abandoned
the project, causing losses of several billion.
Therefore, it appears necessary to combine top-
down and bottom-up processes and ensure mean-
ingful public service worker and user participations
in the conception, development and implementation
of digitalisation programmes.
2.5 Impact on public
finances
Digitalisation has a strong impact on public financ-
es and public service budgets. The introduction of
new technologies, the digitalisation of public service
functions represents a significant investment in infra-
structure and tech consultants. To be successful, it
also requires increased spending in workers’ training,
upskilling and new qualifications.
52
Direct and indirect impacts of digitalisation on public
finances often entail direct consequences on ser-
vice quality and working conditions. Investments
in digitalisation projects often focus entirely on the
technology. However, it is just as necessary to in-
vest in skills development and training programs for
workers whose jobs will be digitalised and for those
who will have to work with such digital technologies.
According to many interviewees, this aspect is large-
ly neglected or just put aside when in digitalisation
investment budgets.
When digitalisation projects are financed with of pri-
vate investment and PPPs, cost calculations often
are unrealistic due to regular underestimation of indi-
rect and recurring costs74.
Digitalisation and automation are often linked to
staff reduction. While this may result in reduced la-
bour costs, it is a bad calculation overall. The digi-
talisation of some public service functions often
results into higher workload that causes pressure
and strain amongst remaining employees, leading
to stress, burnouts, increased sick leave, adjoining
costs, and poor staff retention among others, which
in turn can negatively impact the service quality and
effectiveness.
Previous sections of this report have already de-
scribed several examples in which digitalisation pro-
jects had negative impacts on public finances. The
SFPQ in French-speaking Canada also referred to
the public authorities’ very poor record in terms of
developing, calculating and implementing budget-
wise IT and digitalisation projects. Budgets are regu-
larly overdrawn, calculations fail to consider indirect
costs and cost anticipation mistakes have significant
negative impacts on the public budget. Furthermore,
Quebec’s public sector’s dependency on private IT
and digital tech companies has increased and en-
tailed a failure to develop in-house expertise and
knowledge. Many reports by Quebec’s Auditor
General proved, time and time again since the begin-
ning of the 2000’s, that government is paying 50%
more for an equal IT staff in the private sector then
for its own equivalent staff75, that the billing is over
the contracted price per hour, and that the ratio of
internal versus external staff is way over the ratio ob-
served in other public administration76.
PUBLIC SERVICES INTERNATIONAL
Many other trade unions shared this experience.
Younion of Austria represents around 150,000 pub-
lic service employees in a large variety of services
in town councils and local government. In an official
position paper by the union’s national board it is said:
“digitalisation must not become synonymous with
outsourcing, privatisation and public-private partner-
ships (PPPs), which threaten the functioning of our
public services. There is no evidence that digitalisa-
tion or automation of public services leads to more

IMPACT OF DIGITALISATION ON PUBLIC SERVICES QUALITY, EFFICIENCY AND ACCESS

cost-effective public services or to a reduction in the
administrative burden per se. If new information and
communication technologies (ICT) are introduced
without adequate financial or human resources, it
will result not only in poorer services, but also higher
costs in the long run.77”

This last assessment proved to be highly relevant in

conjunction to the data protection and cyber-secu-
rity issues that some forms of public service digital-
isation raises. In the case of the 2017 cyber-attack
on the NHS (see section 2.3), NHS managers as
well as the UNISON trade union claimed that un-
derfunding had prevented the health authority from
spending enough money on the protection of their
IT systems78.

A Younion representative also underlined that digi-

talisation tends to go hand in hand with the rise of
new low-cost forms of employment, which are rarely
based on employment contracts subject to income
tax and social security contributions, but rely instead
on self-employment, freelancing or other highly vul-
nerable forms of employment. Digitalisation is also
having an impact on workers’ training and skills, with
top-down digitalisation and automation not only re-
sulting in the loss of low-skilled jobs, but also in a re-
duction of medium and even high-qualified employ-
ment. This in turn negatively impacts income tax and
social security contribution revenues, undermining
public finance and pensions.

This is compounded by large multinational tech com-

panies’ tax avoidance practices and the emergence
of the ‘sharing economy’. Jointly these trends are
negatively affecting public finances. q

DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A LABOUR PERSPECTIVE 53

 3.
IMPACT OF DIGITALIZATION
ON PUBLIC SERVICE EMPLOYMENT
AND WORKING CONDITIONS

3.1 Impacts on employment zz Shift in employment systems and relation be-

tween employee and employer: as a result of the
IMPACT OF DIGITALIZATION ON PUBLIC SERVICE

T
increase in digitally mediated service works and
he impact that digitalisation is having on em-
platform work.
EMPLOYMENT AND WORKING CONDITIONS

ployment and the labour market can be broad-

ly described as fourfold79:
Both the literature review and the interviews indicate
that the core of digitalisation-related employment
zz Employment creation: in new sectors or related
creation will be concentrated in IT and tech profes-
to new products and new services linked to new
sions in the private sector, not in public services.
technologies. Big data analysts, app designers or
Existing evidence as well as (radical) future scenar-
cybersecurity specialists, etc.
ios (see textbox below) indicate significant job and
employment change as well as job destruction.
zz Employment destruction: due to the automation
or robotisation of certain tasks and jobs espe-
Although existing quantitative estimations should be
cially in administrative work such as invoice han-
interpreted with extreme caution, a large body of re-
dling and processing, etc.
search predicts significant job losses. UK’s nation-
al studies estimate that 25% to 40% of jobs could
zz Change in employment content and relations
be lost to automation and digitalisation in the overall
with citizens/users: digitalisation of human/in-
economy. A study carried out by the right-of-centre
telligent machine interfaces, and new forms of
liberal think tank ‘Reform’ estimates that 250,000
management. In general, employment content is
jobs might be lost across different public service
becoming more demanding in terms of skills re-
branches by 203080.
quirements, while employment relations become
more blurred (for example by combining mobile
The threat of job destruction is stressed by various
work, homework and office work; more flexible
trade unions:
working hours or increasingly project-based
work).

54 PUBLIC SERVICES INTERNATIONAL

zz The UNSA civil service union in France estimat-
ed that between 3% and 8% of staff (40,000
to 110,000 workers) will be affected in the near
future, particularly in administrative and technical
jobs.
zz The British multi-sector union UNITE believed
that over 230,000 of its 1.4 million members
could lose their jobs to automation by 2035, with
many workers in health services and local gov-
ernment being at risk.
zz The FNV trade union in the Netherlands reported
that 1,500 mostly lower-skilled jobs out of a total
15,000 were cut as a result of the digitalisation of
legal services.
Interviewees from the UK, France or the U.S. report-
ed that digitalisation programmes in public servic-
es often went hand in hand with austerity, budget
cuts and workforce reductions. In France in 2018,
the Macron government announced a plan to cut
120,000 civil service jobs by 202281. Meanwhile, in
the UK, deep and sustained austerity measures have
seen hundreds of thousands of jobs cut in central
and especially local government.
DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A LABOUR PERSPECTIVE
However, interviewed union representatives admitted
that it was hard to identify individual tasks or whole
jobs that would be lost to digitalisation. The extent to
IMPACT OF DIGITALIZATION ON PUBLIC SERVICE
which this task reduction might cause job cuts is also
unclear, since new, different tasks related to the use
EMPLOYMENT AND WORKING CONDITIONS
of digital technologies could be added instead.
In relation to the social care sector in the UK, UNITE
noted that, although robots have not yet replaced hu-
man work in social care because of cost calculations,
workers have become very cheap to employ. With
automation and digitalisation, some social care work-
ers are increasingly working via apps (e.g. clocking
in when they arrive at houses), which contributes to
making them even cheaper through zero-hour con-
tracts or the failure of employers to pay care workers
for travel time or for sleeping in.
A 2019 report was commissioned by the NHS to an-
alyse the impact of automation on the delivery of
health and social care in the UK82. The report pre-
dicts significant amounts of productivity and time
gains: yet UNITE highlights the risk that the automa-
tion of repetitive and administrative tasks will not lead
to freeing up workers to spend more time on direct
care to patients and other value added activities, but
would rather result in staff reductions83.
55
 It seems that growing employment insecurity due to
new digital technologies and processes are associ-
ated with persistent labour shortage issues, particu-
larly in the sector of healthcare and social services.
This is illustrated by the following example.
The ambivalence of digitalisation in
hospital care
At an event on the impact of digitalisation on public
services in Germany organised by ver.di, a represent-
ative of the statutory employee representation body
(‘works council’) of the large private hospital group
Rhön Kliniken painted an ambivalent picture of digital-
isation. The employees had certain reservations about
digital change in healthcare and emphasised that "hu-
man care, the warm hand, is irreplaceable.” Despite all
the opportunities offered by digitalisation, technology
should not replace nursing jobs. Therefore, it would be
important to jointly define the limits of technification
and test the acceptance of robot-assisted care in pilot
projects. However, the main problem in hospitals, and
in the health sector, is the lack of personnel. To resolve
this situation, it is necessary to create good working
conditions, "which go far beyond mechanisation".
Source: Based on documentation of the ver.di
Digitalisation Congress 2018. Available at:
https://www.verdi.de/themen/
digitalisierungskongresse/kongress-2018
IMPACT OF DIGITALISATION ON PUBLIC SERVICE
EMPLOYMENT AND WORKING CONDITIONS
As cutting staff due to an over-optimistic reliance
on digital systems might become dangerous in cas-
es of IT problems and shutdowns, the digitalisation
of public services should not involve the reduction
of staff that is needed to allow services to function
under all circumstances. The importance of maintain-
ing staff and ensuring that the public service work-
force has both digital and ‘analogue’/manual skills
and competences was similarly stressed by a ver.di
representative.
A further important issue linked to digitalisation is the
rise in digitally intermediated service work that is not
based on a contract with an employer but formally
carried out as self-employment in a vacuum of work-
ers’ rights and social protection. Often referred to as
platform work and 'Uberisation84' , these forms of
work tend to be associated with precarious self-em-
ployment and to a new dimension of exploitation and
'Taylorism', that can go as far as the determination of
workload and pay by algorithms; the absence of any
minimum wage; or the need for workers to invest in
their own work devices (e.g. smartphones, apps).
56
3.2 Impact on working
conditions:
The overall picture
Almost all union interviewees highlighted the fact
that certain digital technologies or devices (drones,
robots, sensors, GPS, etc.) have the potential to sup-
port workers in hazardous, dangerous, strenuous or
tedious working conditions.
A representative of the local and municipal workers
trade union, HK Kommunal, pointed out that, in the
municipality he is working with, automation and ‘ro-
botisation’ have successfully reduced monotonous
tasks and jobs, such as paying invoices or handling
simple cases. This representative, who is also the
main employee process automation officer, said that
working time had been reduced by around 30% as a
result of delegating simple tasks to eight machines/
robots. According to him, this is allowing employees
to spend more time on more complicated cases and
develop into new roles and functions.
According to HK Kommunal, the creation of the func-
tion of “employee process automation officer” and
the direct involvement of this officer in the project
group implementing automation projects in the mu-
nicipality was a crucial factor in taking workers inter-
ests into account, reducing concerns amongst em-
ployees about the future of their jobs and creating
trust and confidence in the process.
This example indicates that public service employ-
ees appreciate the positive impacts of digitalisation
on working conditions and working environments. As
shown by large surveys carried out amongst public
service workers in Norway or Germany (see textbox-
es beside), an overwhelming majority of trade union
members in these countries have a positive outlook
on digitalisation and new technologies: as many as
90% believe that new technologies will help them
deliver better public services.
However, the results of these same surveys are rath-
er worrying regarding the concrete implementation
of digitalisation projects and their impact on working
conditions. According to surveys carried out by trade
unions in Norway as well as Germany amongst public
services unions and workers, the implementation of
digital change projects is quite poorly managed by
the responsible authorities, with insufficient atten-
tion paid to working conditions or active employee
and representative involvement.
PUBLIC SERVICES INTERNATIONAL
 Norway: Public service trade union
experience of digitalisation85
In 2017, the Norwegian Municipal and General Employees
trade union federation Fagforbundet carried out a sur-
vey among its members. The survey, which was part of a
report from the think tank Agenda ”The robots are com-
ing - what is the public sector’s response?” was sent
out to 170,000 members of Fagforbundet. It received
more than 30,000 answers from members across dif-
ferent occupational groups.
The survey showed that employees were positive
about new technology and wanted to use it: almost 90
percent of Fagforbundet members believed that new
technology would help them deliver better public ser-
vices. The survey also showed that 80 percent of the
respondents were willing to acquire new skills to ena-
ble them to carry out their work in new ways encom-
passing digital technologies. However, only 35 percent
answered that their workplaces had adequate training
systems. Only 38 percent answered they had received
sufficient information prior to the introduction of digital
technologies at their workplaces.
The survey busted the myth that municipal employees
are sceptical about new technology and showed the
importance of enabling workers to take an active role in
workplace digitalisation processes.
When employees are interested in new technology and
wish to have access to and learn how to use new digital
tools at work, it sends an important signal to the em-
ployers. They should ask their employees which areas
they believe could be digitalized first – and how.
Source: Summary of the survey results by
Fagforbundet in the context of this survey
Whereas the Fagforbundet survey data suggests that
more should be done to inform employees about dig-
ital change projects at an early stage and to provide
adequate upskilling and further training measures,
the German survey results regarding the key impacts
of digitalisation and new technologies on working
conditions are quite worrying. Indeed, a majority of
workers (working across all public services) reported
increases in their workloads due to digitalisation; al-
most 60% reported that digitalisation had increased
stress and pressure linked to working time; and al-
most 50% reported that digitalisation had caused
surveillance and control of their work to increase.
DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A LABOUR PERSPECTIVE
Germany: Survey evidence on the impact
of digitalisation on working conditions in
public services
Based on responses from 6,600 public service employ-
ees, a survey commissioned by the public service trade
union ver.di provides comprehensive evidence on the
impact of digitalisation on working conditions in public
services. Quite surprisingly, survey results show that
digitalisation in Germany is impacting working condi-
tions in public services more than in the private econo-
my as a whole: 88% of public service employees claim
to be affected by digitalisation, 69% of them to a large
extent. Generally, the effects of digitalisation are felt
more strongly by employees who carry out highly com-
plex and managerial tasks. As regards specific services,
the effects of digitalisation in public administration are
more pronounced than in sectors such as education or
health and social work, likely indicating that digitisation
processes in administration are more advanced already.
As regards working conditions, however, the survey
yielded worrying results: nearly half of all respond-
ents reported an increase in work intensity due to
digitalisation while only 8% reported a decrease. This
increase is mostly linked to the volume of work that
employees must deliver: 56% reported an increase in
their total volume of work while only 4% felt that this
volume has decreased. As a result, digitalisation has
IMPACT OF DIGITALISATION ON PUBLIC SERVICE
also caused stress and time pressure to increase by
59%. Furthermore, according to 47% of public sector
EMPLOYMENT AND WORKING CONDITIONS
employees, surveillance and control of their work has
increased due to digitalisation—only 3% report the
opposite.
The number of employees reporting positive effects is
much lower. Only one in four workers reported positive
effects on decision-making and only 20% of public ser-
vice employees reported that digitalisation had had a
positive effect on the compatibility between their family
life and their career.
Source: DGB Bezirk NRW: Digitalisierung im öffen-
tlichen Dienst – Auswirkungen aus Sicht der
Beschäftigten. Sonderauswertung des DGB-Index
Gute Arbeit, Düsseldorf, October 2018. Available at:
https://nrw.dgb.de/archiv/++co++5fb3a472-cd37-
11e8-a27c-52540088cada
57
 Certain other potential negative impacts are more
complex and therefore more difficult to address
through specific action and regulation, as was illus-
trated by research into the introduction of new IT
systems in Swedish municipalities. The study looked
at the way both managers and workers perceived
the process and found significant differences in their
perspectives. While managers viewed ICT as a neu-
tral activity and talked about the move from adminis-
trative to service work, including switching from tele-
phone to computer work in a positive way, workers
perceived the changes in work as a loss of the per-
sonal contact that had been maintained via phone.
The increased importance of computer work made
the workers feel undervalued and unable to use their
professional skills. Furthermore, ICT creates a great-
er volume of more monotonous work. This study
showed that when work was changed by ICT/ digitali-
sation, the new systems were designed in such a way
that invisible/ social skills and the knowledge built
up by workers were rendered useless. Resistance
to these new systems is a reaction to the de-skill-
ing of work and the devaluation of the relationship
between users and providers. Workers perceived
themselves as active agents before the introduction
of digitalisation, but as victims after its introduction.
These results suggest that, when implementing dig-
italisation measures, it is necessary to consider how
to do so “without making the employees feel power-
less, insignificant or socially isolated in order to get
employees on board86”. This would require a more
participatory approach for workers and their unions
at all stage of digitalisation-related organisational
changes.
3.3 Skills and competence
requirements
Digitalisation also affects the nature and contents
of jobs in terms of skills and tasks. The reference to
tasks is important since jobs should be regarded as
bundles of different tasks and skills. As the report
shows, digitalisation impacts directly on tasks and
skills, but only indirectly on jobs: while, according
to research, routine physical tasks are increasingly
being replaced by machines, the need and demand
for intellectual and social tasks as well as IT use are
growing overall. Other studies also show that digital-
isation and new technologies strongly affect tasks
and skills requirements87.
58
One of the strong messages that emerged from the
survey amongst public service unions was that the
introduction of digital technologies, tools and pro-
cesses is restructuring both the workplace and work
contents. This in turn is resulting in new work and
job requirements and in the need for a workforce
that matches new and multiple demands. On the one
hand, there is a need for workers to be more highly
qualified in order to keep pace with technological de-
velopments. On the other hand, there is an increased
demand not only for subject-specific knowledge and
skills, but also for more social and general skills such
as problem-solving abilities, creativity, communica-
tion skills or the ability to think in a comprehensive
and networked manner.
One union interviewee pointed out that "digitalisation
creates losers (workers engaged in jobs/tasks that
can be replaced by machines/robots) and winners
('agile' workers, professionals, IT/software special-
ists)”. Thus, significant investments need to be made
in vocational training and upskilling to avoid leaving a
large proportion of the workforce behind during dig-
ital transformation processes. Furthermore, meas-
ures regarding company-specific training and HR
planning activities are also necessary. Interviewees
particularly emphasised the following recommenda-
tions to guarantee a process of just digital transition
that leaves nobody behind and avoids new forms of
inequalities:
zz adapting initial and further training programmes
at company level as well as within occupational
profiles (national, sector-level);
zz providing all workers with basic digital skills, in-
cluding workers less affected by digitalisation
and older workers;
zz re- und up-skilling workers whose jobs are
automated in order to protect them against
redundancy;
zz integrating new occupational profiles into com-
pany specific training, skills development and
qualification programmes;
zz integrating digital tools and methods into initial
and further training courses and programmes;
zz (re-) classifying pay groups according to new
digital tasks and job profiles;
zz creating roles for trade unions and workers to
identify and anticipate skill needs and training
requirements as well as co-design relevant pro-
grammes and curricula.
PUBLIC SERVICES INTERNATIONAL
As reported by the public service trade union ver.di,
the German water sector was put forward as a prac-
tical illustration of these requirements. According to
ver.di, many changes in work organisation, working
processes and skills requirements were associated
with past investment and modernisation cycles in
the water sector. Current research carried out by the
German Federal Institute of Vocational Education on
professional profiles has identified several needed
adjustments and new requirements emerging from
the digitalisation of jobs and services in water servic-
es (see textbox below).
Germany: Digitalisation and new skills
requirement – Adjusting the occupational
profile of a Water Supply Engineering
Technician
The Federal Institute for Vocational Education and
Training (BIBB) is currently using the example of sewage
technology specialists to investigate the effects that
digitalisation is currently having on their occupational
profiles and what other effects are still to be expected.
Two trends can already be identified: On the one hand,
in the future, workers will need even more contextual
understanding of the process so that manual interven-
tion at the installation remains a reasonable possibility
in case of failure. On the other hand, “learning to learn”
will become increasingly important as ever more rapid
innovation cycles continue to shorten the shelf-life of IT
knowledge. These trends can be applied to numerous
occupational fields and employers must find solutions
to them. Attitudes such as "the 'digital natives’ already
know” or "people can learn that after work" will not
suffice. Indeed, the retirement of the Baby Boom gen-
eration, who are taking a lot of process-related knowl-
edge with them, is coinciding with declining numbers
of school leavers and increased qualification require-
ments. Ultimately there is a looming risk of losing the
development and transmission of trade-specific manual
know-how to workers, which is an absolute necessity in
case of a digitalized water service system breakdown.
Source: ver.di
It still is unclear whether, and if so where, individual
tasks or entire jobs in the water sector might vanish
because of digitalisation as this will depend on con-
crete investment decisions in water infrastructures.
Whether this also means job cuts is equally unclear,
as new tasks will also be added to the competence
roster. It is important, for example, that the staff
DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A LABOUR PERSPECTIVE
savings promised in glossy brochures by pro-digital
business consultancy firms as a result of fully auto-
mated installations actually occur in reality before
new tasks are assigned to colleagues.
Trade union representatives also highlighted that the
principle according to which every employee has a
right to training must be upheld if digitalisation is to
be a win-win proposition. Furthermore, such training
should be offered on a continuous, lifelong basis
for all employees, not only made available to senior
workers or be limited to short periods.
Relatively few examples of good practice were re-
ported by trade unions in the field of skills and com-
petence development as a response to the new
requirements prompted by digitalisation and the in-
troduction of new technologies. One good practice
was that of the "change agents" that have been es-
tablished in Norwegian municipalities in order to ac-
company digital transformation processes, link man-
agement and the workforce, and support employees.
This initiative was developed by the Norwegian trade
unions in local government. It is further described in
section 4.4.
HK Kommunal mentioned the introduction of 'ro-
botized process automation' (RPA) in a Danish lo-
cal authority as another example of good practice.
RPA aims to relieve employees whose manual, re-
petitive and rule-based tasks take up a lot of their
time. Thanks to the automation of case handling and
search tasks, employees should be able to save on
time—which could then be used for other tasks—and
concentrate on control functions. The municipality of
Haderslev RPA learned from previous negative expe-
riences in digitalisation projects, especially the dan-
gers posed by top-down implementation that failed
to take specific framework conditions into account.
Therefore, the RPA was, from its planning stage, in-
tegrated into a comprehensive project and steering
group structure, including not only senior managers
and external service providers, but also employee
representatives (the ‘employee process automation
officer’) and vocational training experts.
The huge gaps and skill divides within the popula-
tion and workforces in other world regions also relate
to skills and competence requirements. According
to interviewed trade union representatives in Latin
America, this is the case, for example, of healthcare
workers who not only lack digital skills but are illit-
erate and are now obliged to use mobile apps and
devices to record notes on patients and their health.
59
 3.4 Occupational health
and safety
The impact of digitalisation on public service work-
ers’ occupational health and safety is ambiguous. A
2018 report by the European Agency for Safety and
Health at Work of the European Union (EU-OSHA)
IMPACT OF DIGITALISATION ON PUBLIC SERVICE
shows that digitalisation does present a certain num-
ber of challenges for workers’ physical and mental
EMPLOYMENT AND WORKING CONDITIONS
health, such as growing ergonomic risks due to the
increase in online work and the use of mobile devic-
es in non-office environments, ergonomic and cog-
nitive risks associated with new human-machine in-
terfaces or an increasing numbers of workers treated
(rightly or wrongly) as self-employed, who could fall
outside existing OSH regulation88. However, the re-
port also found that certain dimensions, such as tele-
work, could contribute to well-being at work and to a
good work-life balance. Since workers are no longer
obliged to work in the same place at the same time,
the risks of travel accidents are lower. The use of ICT
could also help remove people from hazardous envi-
ronments or better protect them by automating dan-
gerous, monotonous and/or repetitive tasks.
That said, important emerging psychosocial risks
have been identified in relation to flexible working
patterns and to a 24/7 economy. Such a pace of work
leads to increased workloads and task complexity,
excessive working hours or feelings of isolation due
to personal relations being replaced by virtual or re-
mote contacts. Additional risks include the danger
60
of suffering from eyesight issues due to excessive
screen time, sleep disruption problems, stress, ergo-
nomic problems including postural issues and carpal
tunnel syndrome, depression and ‘burn-out’ due to
an “always on” work culture, hyper-connectivity and
constant digital availability.
Furthermore, certain physical health risks related to
computer and ICT work are already well-known: phys-
ical inactivity is associated with health risks such as
coronary heart disease, being overweight or obese,
certain types of cancer and psychological disorders
such as depression and anxiety. There is also a risk
of additional musculoskeletal disorders [MSDs] re-
sulting from the use of mobile devices such as mo-
bile phones and tablets that are less ergonomic than
desk-top devices.
Research89 has highlighted how workers in public
employment services reported that digitalisation was
leading to a degradation of their working conditions
because of work intensification, monitoring of work
and workers, performance-oriented management,
loss or standardisation of social relationships and
negative mental health outcomes.
In Sweden, public service union Vision, along with
other trade unions in local government, carried out
an in-depth analysis of the impact of new technol-
ogies and digitalisation on workplaces in public ser-
vices. They highlighted the importance of workers’
influence over the introduction and development
PUBLIC SERVICES INTERNATIONAL

of digital technologies and computer systems. Their
research found that in workplaces where there had
been no employee involvement, the share of workers
who thought that their IT system had reduced stress
and disruption in their job was around 20% lower
than in workplaces where employees reportedly had
an influence. Similar results were published in re-
search carried out on behalf of Swedish Municipal
Workers’ Union Kommunal90.
The SFPQ of Quebec, Canada reported that digital-
isation might also have indirect effects on occupa-
tional health and safety through the deterioration of
working conditions. This was evidenced by a survey
researching working conditions in the internal call
centres that were created in public administration
and government bodies as early as the 1990s (see
textbox below).
Canada: Worsening working conditions lead
to health and psychosocial issues
In 2016, the public service trade union SFPQ published
a report on “Changes in work and service delivery in the
era of new public management” that also addressed the
issue of digitalisation in public services91. The research
behind the report analysed a trend found in new pub-
lic management to shift specific services within public
administration to specific entities such as call centres,
with a particular focus on working conditions. Based on
a sample of almost 500 responses from different minis-
tries, the findings indicated a strong trend of standardi-
zation of tasks and functions, as well as the application
of quantitative performance indicators and an increase
in tight monitoring and control by managers. As a result,
overall working conditions had worsened while health
and psychosocial issues had emerged. In response to
this, the SFPQ organized a platform for employees to
address critical issues related to working conditions in
call centres and promote improvements as well as high-
er quality services.
Source:
Interview with SFPQ in the context of this study.
DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A LABOUR PERSPECTIVE
3.5 Working time and work-
life balance
One of the major threats presented by digital change
is the pressure to stay online at all times. This issue
has been discussed broadly but remains inconsist-
ently addressed in practice in most countries. France
and Italy have introduced reforms that foresee a legal
right to disconnect (see textbox below). Similar reg-
ulations have increasingly been negotiated in sector
and company-level collective agreements by trade
unions, including in public services (see chapter 4).
France and Italy: Legal Right to disconnect
The boundaries between work and private life are
becoming increasingly blurred due to mobile work and
in particular the tendency to read and respond to email
correspondence outside of normal working hours and
be connected to work-related information flows at all
times. In order to address this problem trade unions
have demanded regulation. In addition to company or
IMPACT OF DIGITALISATION ON PUBLIC SERVICE
sector level agreements, demands have also been
made to develop national legislation in certain countries.
EMPLOYMENT AND WORKING CONDITIONS
France was a pioneer country in this context. Indeed, the
government reacted to public debates and strong trade
union demands in 2017 by introducing the legal right to
disconnect through the so-called El Khomri law, which
posits that every employment contract must include a
negotiation of the employee’s obligations regarding the
extent to which they are expected to remain connected
outside of office hours.
In Italy, trade unions were also strong proponents
of legislative regulation. The right to disconnect is
explicitly recognized in Law No. 81/2017, article 19. The
provision specifies that the written agreement between
worker and employer must also regulate the employee’s
time off and indicate the technical and organizational
measures taken by the involved parties to ensure that
the employee has the right to disconnect from company
devices.
For further information see: Avogaro, M. 2018:
Right to disconnect: French and Italian Proposals for a
global issue.
61
 Interviewed unions reported that the increase in
home-based or mobile telework was a strong digi-
talisation-related trend. Influenced by private sector
development, modern 'open' office concepts92 are
often planned to host fewer employees than the to-
tal employed by a company. This causes competition
among workers to get the best desks in the morning,
while bringing savings to the employer who is able to
calculate average office occupancy and shift office
desktop costs (electricity, rent, insurance or even
hardware costs) to the worker.
AFT highlighted the strong trend towards telework in
the United States. It referred to the example of fed-
eral state central administration in Tennessee where
employees were actively encouraged to work from
home. However, the main incentive behind this im-
pulse was not to offer employees a better work-life
balance, but rather to reduce office rental costs. This
example seems to reflect a general trend in public
administration in the U.S. as the following textbox
illustrates.

Who Needs a Desk? Tennessee Takes Telework to the Max

The latest estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau published in November 2018 show that in 2017 approximately
eight million workers primarily work from home. That makes telework now second behind only driving as the most
common means of getting to work, exceeding public transportation for the first time93.

The number of Americans telecommuting at least occasionally is much larger than what’s depicted in the federal
data. That’s because the Census survey asks respondents to report how they “usually” go to work, meaning those
working from home only a day or two each week aren’t counted. A 2016 Gallup survey found that 43 percent of
employees spent at least some time working remotely94.

Among Tennessee state workers, in some departments up to 72 percent of the workforce telework most of the time.
IMPACT OF DIGITALISATION ON PUBLIC SERVICE

They’re all participating in the state’s ambitious initiative, called Alternative Workplace Solutions (AWS), to transform
its workplace. It goes far beyond traditional approaches to telecommuting, in which employees occasionally work
EMPLOYMENT AND WORKING CONDITIONS

from home but still spend most of the time in a central location.

In exchange for giving up their desk or office, participating employees can work remotely (either at home or in
the field) full- or part-time. When they do come into the office, they can select from a variety of seating options—
standing desks, lounge areas, conference rooms. They have lockers for personal possessions. The best schedule
for each person is evaluated individually. Some employees come into the central office twice a week.

Since mid-2016, when the program launched, 16 departments have given employees the option of telework. 6,000
of them took it. About 27,000 of the Tennessee executive branch’s 38,000 employees could eventually be eligible.

In the first two years of implementation, AWS has racked up an impressive record of benefits. According to internal
Tennessee surveys, 60 percent of managers say employees have improved productivity and 80 percent of
employees say they have a better work-life balance. Participating agencies have recorded a 37 percent reduction in
sick leave use, and the state estimates that the average employee is saving $1,800 a year on gas. By the end of this
fiscal year, Tennessee says it will have likely cut its real-estate rental costs by $6.5 million. Next year, it plans to sell
one of its downtown Nashville office buildings, which is no longer needed. That could give the state an extra $40 to
$60 million (no figures available on the share of savings borne by employees).

The results have other states intrigued, including North Carolina and Utah.

Sources: based on information provided by the AFT trade union and an article on www.government .com. Available
at: http://www.governing.com/topics/workforce/gov-tennessee-government-telework.html

62 PUBLIC SERVICES INTERNATIONAL

3.6 Work monitoring and
surveillance
The use of digital tools to monitor workers' move-
ments, breaks and performance has long been of
concern to trade unionists. However, such tools
may also bring advantages since surveillance tools
and robotics can support workers in handling and
controlling dangerous and toxic substances, as un-
ion interviewees from the water and waste sector
mentioned.
AFT representatives highlighted that, depending on
the context, GPS tracking and other surveillance and
monitoring tools can increase security and even save
lives: this is the case when police officers or social
workers operating in dangerous situations come un-
der attack. However, they also stressed the need
for clear regulatory rules, such as ensuring that only
specific and agreed-on places are subject to surveil-
lance and regulating the use of cameras in vehicles
and that of the data collected from workers' digital
wristbands.
Most interviewees mentioned problematic aspects
of digital tools that allow for monitoring and surveil-
lance. A study carried out in internal call centres
equipped with digital technologies in public admin-
istration in French-speaking Canada demonstrated
that employees were initially enthusiastic to work
with state-of-the-art communication technologies
and digital equipment. However, it became clear
quite rapidly that these technologies were also used
to permanently and abstractly (i.e. not considering
a case’s concrete aspects) control employee perfor-
mance, for instance to oversee how much working
time is spent on specific tasks, number and duration
of breaks, toilet visits or constant surveillance by the
system with rebuke from the team leader or manag-
er. Work scheduling was also done automatically by
the system, which caused many issues regarding the
workers’ ability to take days off or maintain their re-
duced schedule during the holiday season and sum-
mer vacation. The lack of flexibility for workers to plan
their time was the main complaint expressed to the
union. Recently, one public agency tried to improve
those elements and, to do so, they were forced to
go back to manually making work schedules for 700
people95.
DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A LABOUR PERSPECTIVE
All in all, digitalisation provides new, cheap and
powerful data processing possibilities that allow a
worker’s performance to be tracked and algorithms
to increasingly dictate workload, schedule, and
work intensity. When used to monitor performance,
such technologies can also have an impact on pay.
Performance monitoring and surveillance also in-
creases the risk of psychosocial strain, stress relat-
ed to meeting arbitrary targets set by a machine and
diminished flexibility in terms of work schedules and
workloads.
In many public service sectors, apps on smartphones,
specially designed portable devices or components
in vehicles, all feeding into data analytics systems,
are becoming a part of the day-to-day working life
of many workers. This is often coupled with location
monitoring technologies, which are becoming more
widespread and are no longer necessarily attached
to the vehicle but may be integrated into mobile de-
vices such as the smartphone or tablet.
IMPACT OF DIGITALISATION ON PUBLIC SERVICE
As was highlighted by ver.di in Germany, each step
EMPLOYMENT AND WORKING CONDITIONS
further into digitalisation potentially extends the
technical possibilities of performance and behaviour
control. These possibilities must not be used in a
way detrimental to human rights and dignity. Worker
data protection systems must be considered in any
IT procurement decisions. “Privacy by design” and
“privacy by default”96 software, which limits the
analysis of worker-related data or does not allow it
at all, are means of choice here. Therefore, compa-
nies and institutions must become aware and be held
accountable for their responsibility over worker data
protection. They must ensure that sensitive informa-
tion is collected and handled in a way that is consist-
ent with human and labour rights.
Given the increasing relevance of worker data sen-
sitivity and privacy issues, some trade unions have
developed model collective agreements and other
tools to negotiate and secure workers’ protection.
Several examples are presented in chapter 4.
63
 3.7 Impact on existing and new inequalities
in the labour market and workforce
Current literature on the topic has particularly empha-
sised the fact that digitalisation has polarised, and
will continue to polarise, existing inequalities in the
labour market on the basis of skills, gender and other
worker characteristics. For example, digital technolo-
gies are replacing routine cognitive and manual tasks
commonly performed by workers in the middle of the
wage spectrum. However, non-routine manual tasks
are often performed in jobs that require low skill and
education levels. As a result, jobs are being further
separated into tasks traditionally performed by the
lowest and highest skilled workers97.
Research has found that wages have also become
more polarised. Wage levels and job quality are in-
creasingly linked to the command of digital skills,
which will continue to gain importance in labour mar-
kets in the coming years, along with “analytical, in-
teractive, and problem-solving skills”98. Researchers
agree that inequality will rise as the demand for
IMPACT OF DIGITALISATION ON PUBLIC SERVICE
low-skilled workers decreases and the economic
EMPLOYMENT AND WORKING CONDITIONS
opportunities for low-qualified people in the labour
market become more constrained and precarious99.
Research has also stressed that the main challenge
is to make sure that low-skilled workers are given op-
portunities to train and retrain100.
The research mentioned above is mainly based on
OECD countries and there exists a major lack of re-
search on the impact in developing countries. The
trend causing low skilled labour to decrease due
to digitalisation and automation might not apply in
countries where labour costs are much cheaper.
Union representatives highlighted the strong need to
invest more in training and retraining and for them to
be involved in the identification of specific needs and
programmes. Furthermore, they indicated that digi-
talisation could pose a threat to equality along gen-
der lines. UNISON pointed out that in the UK many of
the jobs and task profiles facing a high probability of
automation were carried out by women. At the same
time, the rapidly increasing demand for both IT jobs
and managerial functions are favouring men since
64
women are strongly underrepresented in these are-
as. Therefore, it is necessary to take action on train-
ing for women in order to address these imbalances.
A representative of the Spanish Federation of
Services to Citizens, FSC/CC.OO, also highlighted
that the digitalisation of public services was char-
acterised by a strong gender divide resulting from
structural gender imbalances in the fields of ICT and
technology. Digitalisation may therefore well exac-
erbate existing horizontal and vertical gender-based
employment segregation.
Digitalisation is not gender neutral
More than 200 million women around the world lack
access to the Internet because of social and cultural
stereotypes; more than 1.7 billion do not own a mobile
phone, even when 80% of the population in developing
countries have one; only 13% of ICT workers are women
and out of that percentage, only 10% occupy manage-
rial positions within the sector. There is nothing gender
neutral about the impact of digitalization in the Future
World of Work. From flexible working hours, to life-long
learning and digital-skill training, to the technology gap
and labour segregation; digitalization will have a signif-
icant, and most times, overlooked, impact on women.
Source: UNI Global 2017: Digitalization from a Gender
Perspective
Trade unions in the fields of health and social care but
also in other sectors characterised by a high share
of administrative work highlighted that digitalisation
and the automation of service activities were affect-
ing women to a far greater extent than men. This is
not only due to the workforce in health and social
care being overwhelmingly female, but because of
the overrepresentation of women in jobs that require
lower skills and entry qualifications. Many such jobs
are also based on flexible arrangements such as part-
time or temporary contracts.
PUBLIC SERVICES INTERNATIONAL
The adverse and disproportionate impact of digital-
isation on existing inequalities is not only affecting
women in the labour market but also other disadvan-
taged groups. This is the case of black and ethnic mi-
nority workers, as is shown in the following textbox
that summarizes evidence and experiences in the UK.

Adverse and disproportionate impacts of digitalisation on black & minority ethnic

workers

At a conference on digitalisation and public services organised in 2018, a representative of the Public and
Commercial Services trade union (PCS) and member of the TUC Race Relations Committee provided an
assessment of the impact of digitalisation on black and minority ethnic (BME) workers:

In Britain, significantly lower percentages of ethnic minorities work as managers, directors and senior
officials, compared with white people. The largest sector employing BME people is the public sector,
largely because the levels of discrimination in the private sector are higher and because the public

IMPACT OF DIGITALISATION ON PUBLIC SERVICE

sector is seen as having better equality policies and being more accessible to BME workers. However,
this is the area that has faced the deepest cuts to jobs, adversely impacting BME people as they are

EMPLOYMENT AND WORKING CONDITIONS

more likely to work in front-line and administrative roles, those bearing the brunt of cuts. Referring to
the UK government’s austerity programme, the union member noted that these include cutting front-line
services. Nearly 25,000 administrative roles are seen as ‘redundant’ in public service delivery, many
have been cut already. The four largest areas within the sector are the National Health Service, Education,
Central and local government and Police forces. Within the Civil Service, 154,000 administrative jobs are
impacted, while in Education that number stands at 89,700. According to research, the government’s aim
is to fully automate these administrative roles and replace them with technology. This process has been
happening systematically over the past 10 years. The focus is on admin roles that are repetitive, front-line
or cognitive and that involve interacting with users. These are roles traditionally filled by BME workers and
roles they have been held back in because of discrimination at work and institutional racism in all aspects
of training, appraisal, promotion and progression. Being held back in such roles mean that there is little
opportunity to partake in development opportunities in order to upskill and compete for jobs at higher
grades. According to the trade union representative, “BME workers not only face a glass ceiling in public
sector employment but find that ceiling barricaded.”

Source: https://www.epsu.org/sites/default/files/article/files/Impact%20of%20digitalisation%20
on%20BME%20workers%20EPSU%20June%2018%20-%20Zita%20Holbourne.pdf

DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A LABOUR PERSPECTIVE 65

 3.8 ‘Digital Taylorism’:
Emergence of precarious
forms of employment

The emergence of new types of digitally intermedi-
ated employment involving digital labour platforms
that do not regard themselves as employers—with
related responsibilities and duties—but only as inter-
mediaries has been well documented in private ser-
vice delivery101. However, interviewees highlighted
that these types of employment and 'Uberisation' are
occurring with equal frequency in public services.
This is especially visible in labour intensive services
and is often related to formal employment relation-
ships being substituted for dependent, sometimes
“bogus” self-employment, bringing about the de-
mise of labour protection regulation and the rise of
precariousness.
IMPACT OF DIGITALISATION ON PUBLIC SERVICE
Referring to platforms in the field of social care and
the increased use of app-based work schedules and
work-on-demand models in the sector, UNITE not-
ed that the ‘Uberisation’ of care work has already
started. The prime motivation of digitalisation in this
field is cost reduction and the promise of produc-
tivity increase. According to UNITE, such develop-
ments indicate a general ‘digital Taylorisation’ affect-
ing the health and social services sector in the UK.
Accordingly, staff is seen as the largest cost factor
and becomes a target for outsourcing and, where
possible, standardisation and process automation
and AI solutions such as robots for social care.

From the perspective of workers, app-based work via

Union representatives from the UK and Austria, as platforms is often linked to extremely flexible working
EMPLOYMENT AND WORKING CONDITIONS

well as South Korea and Singapore, made strong ref-
erences to new forms of precarious employment that
have already emerged in the private sectors but are
becoming increasingly common in public services,
such as health and social care, public space man-
agement, gardening or urban public transport).
time (and thus a highly unsteady income situation)
and a lack of social security or labour law protection
against economic and social risks because they are
formally self-employed. q

In the UK, a study carried out by the market-liberal

institute ‘Reform’ in 2017 argued that public servic-
es could be “the next Uber”. The report describes
a future scenario where public services are largely
automated and where human labour is provided via
online-platforms for on-demand teachers or doctors
(see textbox beside).

According to UK’s UNITE and UNISON, this radical

vision of public services organised on the basis of
work-on-demand is not totally unlikely. This can be
explained by the combination of fiscal austerity pol-
icies and a digitalisation strategy that mainly aims
to cut costs by layoffs and staff reduction in public
services.

66 PUBLIC SERVICES INTERNATIONAL

 Public Services as the next ‘Uber’?

UK-based liberal think-tank Reform says websites and artificial intelligence “chat bots” could replace up to
90% of Whitehall’s administrators, as well as tens of thousands in the NHS and GP surgeries by 2030. Even
nurses and doctors could fall victim to the march of the machines, which the report says can outperform
humans at some diagnoses and routine surgical procedures and are more efficient at collecting information.
The report also argues that public services should become more flexible by embracing a gig economy
where workers support themselves through a variety of flexible jobs acquired through online platforms. A
Reform press release says: “Public services can become the next Uber, using the gig economy to employ
locum doctors and supply teachers.”

IMPACT OF DIGITALISATION ON PUBLIC SERVICE

Few complex roles, it suggests, will be able to resist the move towards automation, with the aim that
public services will eventually become “diamond-shaped”, as both frontline and strategic roles are

EMPLOYMENT AND WORKING CONDITIONS

replaced by computers. “Twenty percent of public-sector workers hold strategic, ‘cognitive’ roles,” it
says. “They will use data analytics to identify patterns—improving decision-making and allocating workers
most efficiently.” The NHS, for example, can focus on the highest risk patients, reducing unnecessary
hospital admissions. UK police and other emergency services are already using data to predict areas of
greatest risk from burglary and fire.”

Such “contingent labour” platforms, it says, could suit hospitals and schools as an alternative to traditional
agency models, as well as organisations that experience seasonal peaks in demand such as HMRC at the
end of the tax year.

The report also highlights the scope for increased automation in policing through crowd-monitoring
drones and facial recognition technology, although it acknowledges the concerns involved in holding
people’s images.

Source: The Guardian: "Robots could replace 250000 public sector workers". 6
February 2017. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/feb/06/
robots-could-replace-250000-uk-public-sector-workers.

DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A LABOUR PERSPECTIVE 67


TRADE UNIONS
AND PUBLIC SERVICE
DIGITALIZATION
A
TRADE UNIONS AND PUBLIC SERVICE DIGITALIZATION
s argued in the previous sections of this
report, digital change is resulting in new and
fundamental challenges. Specific issues and
challenges identified by public sector unions include:
zz contents, quality and mode of delivery of public
services in the future, including the relationship
between public and private operators;
zz the increasing use of AI and algorithms in sup-
porting and even taking over decision-making in
public services—a development that raises seri-
ous ethical questions;
zz the role of trade unions, employee interest rep-
resentation and collective action in shaping and
influence the digital transition process in public
services;
zz significant restructuring and change of public
service employment profiles and contents as
well as the workforce structure in public servic-
es (job destruction and creation, job change and
shifts);
68
4.
zz deepening of existing and emergence of new
inequalities in public service access and among
public service workers (skills, pay, working
conditions);
zz the impact of machine work, new digital tools
and new forms of performance and behavior
monitoring on working conditions experienced
by public workers;
zz increasingly blurred boundaries and dependen-
cy between public and private actors engaged in
the provision of public services and private com-
panies providing software, big data analytics or
cloud solutions;
zz data security and personal data privacy issues
for public service users and workers;
zz the emergence of new forms of vulnerable, pre-
carious employment in public services (health-
care work platforms, outsourcing and telework,
for example) and its massive impact not only on
the affected workers’ social security (often for-
mally self-employed) but also on public income
due to tax losses;
PUBLIC SERVICES INTERNATIONAL
 ©Per Flakstad/Fagbladet

TRADE UNIONS AND PUBLIC SERVICE DIGITALIZATION

Trade unions around the world are actively engaged
in addressing these challenges. As organisations
advocating for quality public services and user
access and representing the interests of public
service workers, they are well aware of the fact
that digitalisation implies much more than mere
technological change. Indeed, they regard it as a
comprehensive phase of restructuring, requiring
concomitant measures at different points in time
(anticipation, implementation and evaluation of
change processes) and at different levels (from
workplace, to national and global level).
zz How can workers take control of new technolo-
gies in a way that benefits their working condi-
tions and wellbeing (e.g. telework, flexible work
to adapt to workers’ needs) as well as the servic-
es they deliver?
zz How can trade unions negotiate (e.g. via collec-
tive agreements) a fair digital transition for public
service workers?

The following sections describe examples of trade

union initiatives and good practice, both in terms
of tools used and of the levels of action at which
they have sought to shape framework conditions
and regulate the processes underpinning the
digitalisation of public services.

The analysis addresses three guiding questions:

zz How can workers and their trade unions partici-

pate and take an active role in shaping the forms
and use of new technologies in public services?

DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A LABOUR PERSPECTIVE 69


4.1 Involvement in
digitalisation-related public
policies
In all world regions, trade unions have been actively
involved in debates and the development of public
policies regarding digital transformation process-
es and their impact on employment and work. They
were often the first organisations to highlight not only
positive aspects but also the critical impacts digitali-
sation had on working conditions. Although their lev-
el of influence differs, trade unions have been suc-
cessful in shaping public policies and legal reforms
in certain countries, notably as regards the “right to
disconnect” or workers’ data protection.
AFT in the U.S. published a report on the impact
of digital government and technological change on
public employees and the quality of public servic-
es as early as 2002. The report was elaborated by a
trade union task force on digital government that was
set up by AFT102 and addressed issues that are more
TRADE UNIONS AND PUBLIC SERVICE DIGITALIZATION
relevant today than ever before: health and safety,
training and skills development, telework and other
work options made available by new technologies,
and employee privacy and security.
The German union ver.di reported that public sec-
tor employers at federal, state and municipal levels
have adopted digitalisation programmes, laws and
master plans aiming to digitalise public services and
processes. Many of these activities are exclusively
technology-oriented and mostly fail to address the
question of how digital technologies can improve
the provision of public interest services or the role
of workers. ver.di has repeatedly criticised the gov-
ernment’s approach in public statements, positions
papers, public conferences and on dedicated web-
sites103. The union is investing a significant amount
of resources and efforts in informing and contribut-
ing to public opinion and debates on the subject of
digitalisation. This includes the preparation of expert
opinions on proposed legislation and active lobby-
ing of legislative and policy making bodies. In addi-
tion, ver.di is involved in discussions held in Federal
Government commissions on the subject of digitali-
sation. ver.di also actively contributes to design
70
EPSU demands for fair EU eHealth
policies
In a position paper responding to a public
consultation on the digitalisation of the health and
care sector, the European Trade Union Federation
EPSU noted: “Collection of big health data should
not in any case treated as commodities: Therefore,
big data should be used only to improve patient’s
treatments and the organization and interoperability
among different medical institutions. EU standards
should avoid patient and health data transfer for
commercial purposes. Another priority should be
the fight of big health data black market. It means
as stated before that patients and workers needs
also to be aware in which way the hospitals are
going to use confidential data on treatments and in
the case oppose any use for commercial purpose of
their health data.104”
As regards implementing eHealth policies in the
European Union, EPSU requests the following:
* That the promotion of private-public partnerships
be challenged and that an increase of public in-
vestment in the digital transformation of our health
systems (infrastructure, workforce, support of pa-
tients) be fostered instead.
* That the European Commission address the une-
ven access to new technologies faced by work-
forces across different countries and regions in
Europe, particularly in the countries hit hardest by
austerity measures, and implement measures to
overcome it.
* That the European Commission further involve
social partners in the reflection surrounding the
transition towards new care provision models:
sectorial social dialogue is an important tool for
investigating the new care model’s impact on
the workforce, creating opportunities to estab-
lish trust, confidence and good collaboration and
involving the workforce in designing transition
strategies.
Sources: EPSU contribution to public EU Consultation
on “Transformation Health and Care in the Digital
Single Market“ (10 Oct 2017) and EPSU reaction to the
European Commission’s Communication on “enabling
the digital transformation of health and care in the
Digital Single Market; empowering citizens and build-
ing a healthier society” https://www.epsu.org/article/
place-workers-digital-transformation-health-europe
PUBLIC SERVICES INTERNATIONAL
proposals for political discussions that are relevant
for public services, such as the ethics commission
or the "White Paper Working 4.0" discussion process
about the future of work that was initiated by the
German government in 2015.
In Argentina, the Confederation of Municipal Workers
(Confederación de Trabajadores Municipales, CTM)
prepared a position paper on the "The Future of
Work in Municipal Services (El Futuro del Trabajo en
el Sector Servicios Municipales105), which was pre-
sented at a PSI meeting on municipal services, the
CONTRAM ISP Americas in 2018. The CTM highlights
that trade unions are not opposed to new technolo-
gies. In fact, they acknowledge the positive impact
that these technologies can have on public service
employees’ working conditions and general quality
of life. However, the CTM also demands that employ-
ees have a voice and that trade unions be allowed
to participate in the development of technological
modernization and digital innovation programmes in
public services. The trade union placed emphasis on
the fact that no public service worker should be left
behind and that all should have a right to training and
skills adaptation.
The CTM stressed that collective bargaining was the
best possible mechanism to ensure worker partici-
pation and involvement and guarantee positive out-
comes, as it empowers them to demand information
about future investments in new technologies from
employers. This subsequently allows them to analyse
the impact that these investments may have on em-
ployment and to propose and adopt measures in the
workers’ defence.
In addition, in 2018, the Argentinian Association of
Legal Workers (Associación del Personal Legislativo,
or APL) launched an observatory on the future of
work—the Observatorio del Futuro del Trabajo106.
The digital transformation of our societies and econ-
omy is one of this observatory’s areas of interest.
Indeed, it considers digitalisation to be one of the
most significant challenges facing the world today,
on par with the resurgence of authoritarian regimes
and the increasing dominance of East Asian econom-
ic power. In June 2019, the Observatory published
a collective paper on these topics. Considering the
lack of worker involvement and the many promises
DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A LABOUR PERSPECTIVE
made in the context of new 'intelligent' technologies
and automation, APL also firmly requests an "insti-
tutionalization of employee participation" through
collective bargaining and the tight monitoring of the
implementation of digitalisation projects and pro-
grammes in public services107.
As regards education policies, trade unions in various
contexts are engaged in the public debate surround-
ing the future of education in the digital age and the
priorities set by public education policies.
For example, U.S. union AFT acknowledges the add-
ed value of new technologies as support tools in
the teaching profession. The union has developed
its own web-based learning platform ('Share My
Lesson'), which is very popular, thereby demonstrat-
ing that technology, when properly used by quali-
fied teachers, can enhance the learning process.
However, educators and their unions—not for-prof-
it corporations—should always be the ones to lead
the policy, design and training measures relating to
technological innovation in the field of education. As
was previously highlighted (see section on educa-
TRADE UNIONS AND PUBLIC SERVICE DIGITALIZATION
tion and cultural services in chapter 1), AFT has ob-
served that digitalisation and the heightened interest
of large multinational and software companies in the
education sector have emerged as a threat to pub-
lic education. The trade union was not only critical
of the dominant approach to educational digitalisa-
tion, which consists in bypassing the main actors in
the education system by establishing direct links to
those users who can afford to pay, but also raised
strong concerns regarding the practices of large
tech companies, who seek to replace educators with
technology despite data showing that an over-reli-
ance on artificial intelligence promotes inequality,
minimizes teacher-student connections, disregards
socio-emotional learning and lowers test scores.
According to AFT, even the most sophisticated ar-
tificial intelligence cannot replace the many impor-
tant one-on-one relationships that students need to
advance in school and life, or teach the valuable life
lessons that help them grow and succeed.
In view of this, the union resolved that it would work
with the Education International global union and
the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development to map the development of technology
71
 in education and bring together data-driven practi-
tioners and researchers in order to understand and
promote the best, most effective practices.
In 2017, the public service trade union SFPQ in
Canada started its own research project to evaluate
the implementation and promotion of artificial intelli-
gence in the State of Quebec (see textbox below).
The project is still ongoing and has two main ob-
jectives: Firstly, setting up a conceptual framework
that looks at AI in public services and its possible
impacts. Secondly, analysing impacts with specific
groups of workers in the IT field (by function, sector
of activity, employment category) in order to better
understand the AI revolution and the digitalisation of
public services. On this basis, SFPQ aims to develop
an adequate strategic position on the introduction of
these new technologies into government.
Canada – Trade union research on artificial
intelligence in public government
"For public services, the issue of AI is intimately linked
TRADE UNIONS AND PUBLIC SERVICE DIGITALIZATION
to automation, a source of both concern and hope.
On the one hand, the automation of processes and
the digitization of services can be part of an industrial
management logic resulting from Taylorism. They would
then promote staff reduction, task standardization, de-
valuation of front-line jobs, de-skilling of staff and out-
sourcing of services. In addition, they would have the
potential to contribute to the geographical remoteness
of services to the population and their dehumanization.
On the other hand, the deployment of these advanced
technologies would allow economies of scale to be
achieved without affecting the payroll of public organ-
izations. Some forms of automation would encourage
the replacement of thankless tasks related to adminis-
tration, monitoring and inspection, cleaning and han-
dling with more rewarding and better paid jobs. By im-
posing delivery standards and rules, automation would
improve the quality and personalization of services to
the public."
Source: SFPQ: L’AVENIR DE L’INFORMATIQUE AU
GOUVERNEMENT DU QUÉBEC - Travaux prospec-
tifs sur l’intelligence artificielle. Cadre conceptuel,
September 2018. Translation by authors of this report.
72
These are some examples of how trade unions are
working to make sure that issues surrounding em-
ployment, working conditions, future of work and
employee interests are kept at the heart of public
service digitalisation processes. However, trade
union and worker participation and involvement in
public policy formulation and implementation with re-
gards digitalisation remains insufficient overall. This
is visible even though both national framework con-
ditions regarding workers participation and the actu-
al role and influence of collective bargaining at the
level of individual public service providers as well as
throughout the sector differ significantly,
Trade union representatives in Africa, Northern and
Southern America, as well as India and South Korea
reported that the collective voice of the workers is
hardly heard when governments elaborate or roll out
public policy over digitalisation in public services.
Even in EU countries, where social dialogue between
employers and trade unions is institutionalised and
enshrined in EU treaties, trade union representatives
reported that the public narratives surrounding pub-
lic service digitalisation were dominated by techno-
logical devoutness and determinism, while employ-
ee interests and concerns were neither sufficiently
heard nor listened to.
UK unions forcefully pointed out that digitalisation
could be considered a continuation of austerity poli-
cies and of creeping public service privatisation un-
der a slightly different guise. Even in Nordic European
countries, where trade unions are powerful and col-
lective bargaining agreements take on a quasi-legis-
lative role, interviewees highlighted numerous cases
of bad practice in the formulation and implementa-
tion of digitalisation policies.
Such examples of good and bad practice should in-
spire not only trade unions, but also policy and deci-
sion makers in the public service sector, to reflect on
the current shortcomings and deficiencies of trade
union involvement in digitalisation and change pol-
icies and practices. It is our hope, therefore, that
the positive examples documented in the following
sections might not only inspire public sector trade
unions, but also support reflection and learning
amongst policy makers.
PUBLIC SERVICES INTERNATIONAL
4.2 Anticipation and
managing of digital change
and restructuring
Several union interviewees mentioned that informing
workers and their representatives in a timely man-
ner is a crucial condition for the proper anticipation
of digital change and its impact on employment and
work. Trade unions consider the introduction of new
technologies—automation technologies in particu-
lar—to be a significant restructuring event that should
be addressed by information and consultation proce-
dures and ensure collective negotiations and worker
participation as early as possible to avoid negative
impacts.
Vision in Sweden stressed the importance of em-
ployees having influence on the introduction and
development of IT systems. Studies and surveys
conducted by the union have shown108 that early
employee involvement leads to staff and manage-
ment experiencing greater usability in the form of im-
proved cooperation, independence, quality, efficien-
cy and security within the system. Early involvement
also leads to a better standard of occupational health
and safety and a better work environment in the form
of reduced IT-disruption-related stress levels.
In Quebec, Canada, the public service collective
agreement (Convention collective des fonction-
naires, 2015-2020) includes several stipulations
addressing digitalisation through the promotion of
cooperation and dialogue between employers and
staff representatives. Digitalisation and ‘technolog-
ical change’ are defined as a change in operations
caused by the introduction or additional use of ma-
chinery, equipment or tools that results in significant
job changes or even the substitution of specific
tasks for employees in one or more departments. In
such a case and within thirty days of the entry into
force of the collective agreement, the parties agreed
to establish a joint ministerial industrial relations com-
mittee in the affected department to discuss prob-
lems resulting from the introduction of technological
changes and consult on possible measures and solu-
tions. However, this poses challenges for union rep-
resentatives because these discussions assume that
they know the IT field; that they are able to evaluate
DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A LABOUR PERSPECTIVE
the possible impacts of such technologies and iden-
tify the training needed by its members, etc. The
imbalance in knowledge can quickly become one of
power.
4.3 Collective agreements
setting frameworks for
socially just digitalisation
The primary way for trade unions to get the best out
of digitalisation and protect their members is nego-
tiating collective agreements that can help regu-
late many of the issues arising from digital change,
whether these impact on pay, working time, work-life
balance or aspects linked to health and safety, such
as psycho-social risks.
In September 2017, Fagforbundet, as one of the
main trade unions in the municipal sector in Norway,
signed a national tripartite cooperation agree-
TRADE UNIONS AND PUBLIC SERVICE DIGITALIZATION
ment109 with the Ministry of Local Government and
Modernisation and the Norwegian Association of
Local and Regional Authorities—the municipality’s
employer association. The agreement110 engages
three municipality-level parties (heads of municipal
administration, local politicians and trade unions) in
a tripartite dialogue on digitalisation and digital com-
petence. The project is financed by the Ministry and
runs until end of 2019. More than 70 municipalities,
representing the whole country, are taking part in
the programme. The participating municipalities are
involved through national conferences and small-
er regional workshops, which representatives from
all three municipality-level parties must attend. The
objective is to support the transformation that new
technologies and digitalisation bring to the municipal
sector, create better understanding, support organ-
izational development and provide a digital platform
(a website111) where relevant reports and documents
can be found and examples of good practice as well
as the challenges facing the participating municipali-
ties can be shared112.
73
 Norway: Involvement of Workers' 'Digital Agents' in the digitalisation of municipal health and
social care services

In addition to the national tripartite agreement, positive developments are occurring in other municipalities in Norway.
One such example is Drammen, a municipality of around 63,000 inhabitants. The municipality has involved employ-
ees in digitalisation processes affecting its healthcare services by setting up a steering committee upon which the
local trade union representative has a permanent position. Furthermore, employees on the ground, for example health
workers in elderly care, are appointed as “digital agents” with a special responsibility to test and decide on new digital
devices and how best to train co-workers.

There are 55 appointed digital agents in the municipality’s Health and Social Services division. Although at this stage it
is still too early to precisely describe the role played by digital agents, their tasks involve:

* Supervising other employees, supporting their managers in the use of digital tools.

* Attending meetings relating to their role.

* Selecting the digital devices (digital medicine dispensers, logging in their mobile device for reporting home-
nursing visits, digital archiving or chatbots) or other tools that they use during their work.

* Sharing their knowledge across departments to ensure a more solid foundation for the technical solutions the
municipality procures.

* Sharing ideas and coming up with new projects that they feel are needed in their departments.

Worker involvement makes the process of digitalisation more effective and less costly. Digital agents can provide
feedback on practical aspects, such as the low battery capacity of certain devices used by social care workers, and
privacy-related concerns. Fagforbundet and our shop stewards are concerned with the protection of our members’
privacy when using digital devices at work. These regard tracking employees during working hours, for example. Home
TRADE UNIONS AND PUBLIC SERVICE DIGITALIZATION

care nurses who use mobile devices to register when and what they are doing when visiting patients are at the risk
of being tracked while working. Employers could then misuse the information they collect on their employees during
working hours.

Source: Information provided by Fagforbundet

The German union ver.di has demanded a differ-
ent approach in addressing the challenges result-
ing from digitalisation. This includes the adjustment
and supplementation of labour law regulations in
response to new requirements. ver.di has called
on the German government to adapt the Works
Constitution Act (Betriebsverfassungsgesetz)
and the Federal Staff Representation Act
(Bundespersonalvertretungsgesetz) in order to
guarantee stronger legal co-determination rights113
and address new challenges related to digitalisa-
tion. Co-determination rights and rights of initiative,
for example for upskilling and data protection, must
be introduced or extended. A possible solution to
this issue is the process-oriented co-determina-
tion established under the North Rhine-Westphalia
Act on the Representation of Staff Employees
(Personalvertretungsgesetz).
The representative of the Confederation of Municipal
Workers (CTM), in Argentina pointed out in an inter-
view for this study the critical linkage between the
right to collective bargaining in local and regional
government being respected and public service
quality. In Argentina, this fundamental human and la-
bour right was secured in national law in 2015, but
is only partially upheld in about half of Buenos Aires’
municipalities. This means that, in the majority of the
country’s municipal governments, workers do not
have collective bargaining rights and lack the work-
ing conditions they need to properly deliver quality
local public services and participate in the digital
transformation of said services114.

74 PUBLIC SERVICES INTERNATIONAL

4.4 Trade union guides and
model collective bargaining
agreements
Trade unions in several countries have developed and
published practical guides for their shop stewards to
support them in the negotiation of agreements on
the introduction of new technologies.

For instance, in 2017, the UK trade union UNITE pub-

lished a "Draft New Technology Agreement"116 that
defines certain principles and equips shop stewards
in public service providers with practical tools for
addressing the introduction of new technologies in
their area of work. The agreement was promoted by
the union as part of a broader campaign aiming to as-
sess the impact of digitalisation across all the sectors
in which it organises. The draft agreement covers a
broad range of issues including training, health and
safety, working time, monitoring and surveillance and
suggests adapting the bargaining structure to ad-
dress issues around digital change. zz Fairness and Equality should be overarching and

TRADE UNIONS AND PUBLIC SERVICE DIGITALIZATION

According to UNITE, the overarching principles that
determine the introduction of new technologies
should be the following:
zz New technologies should promote jobs and cre-
ate new jobs
zz New technologies in public services should be
used to reduce working time but not pay
zz The introduction of new technologies should be
managed in an inclusive way—no divide and rule
zz Training should be an integrated component
guiding principles
UNITE also proposes several concrete tools that
should be suggested and used by trade union ne-
gotiators when consulting and negotiating with em-
ployers on the introduction of new technologies. This
"new technology bargaining apparatus" should rely
on the following elements:
zz A request to set up a New Technology Sub-
committee in order to gain timely access to in-
formation, guarantee the quality of the informa-
tion provided, involve trade union experts and
prepare a solid ground for union response and
negotiations.

zz The acquisition of new skills should be
compensated
zz Risk assessments regarding potential monitor-
ing & surveillance and the use of personal data
should be an intrinsic part of the introduction of
new technologies
zz The health and safety impacts of new technolo-
gies have to be addressed
zz New Technology Representative posts should be
established by the trade union and/or employee
representation body at the level of public service
providers.
zz A demand that a New Technology Fund be estab-
lished. Such a fund should be used to provide
sufficient resources for the New Technology
Sub-Committee and the New Technology
Representatives.

DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A LABOUR PERSPECTIVE 75

 Based on these demands, UNITE has made avail-
able on its website a model agreement providing
concrete ideas on possible wording and content
that could be used by trade unions and employee
representatives117.
The French trade union federation CGT has been
addressing digitalisation as a concern, claiming new
rights. In this sense, it produced a guideline for bar-
gaining in 2017 to allow an adequate follow up regard-
ing the impact of digitalisation on work life quality118.
In Germany, ver.di has developed and published sim-
ilar initiatives, including model agreements on e-gov-
ernment and IT Framework Agreements for works
councils. ver.di has also defined key principles that
should be respected when introducing new tech-
nologies and implementing digitalisation projects in
public services. Digitalisation should be regarded as
a tool to be used for:
zz promoting innovation in employment
zz speeding up qualification
zz facilitating healthy work
zz safeguarding personal rights
zz unlocking free spaces for a better quality of work
TRADE UNIONS AND PUBLIC SERVICE DIGITALIZATION
and life
In the ver.di section of local government and munic-
ipalities, staff representatives face the challenge of
accompanying and shaping the multi-faceted pro-
cesses of "digital administration". According to ver.di,
it is important to understand digitalisation as a social
development that requires active shaping in order to
achieve good outcomes and impacts. Therefore, the
union developed a series of handouts in partnership
with company-level colleagues. ver.di developed a
"Model Framework Agreement on E-Government119"
as early as 2013, and, more recently, has made availa-
ble tools for company agreements on the use of mo-
bile devices such as smartphones and tablet PCs120.
AFT in the U.S. is also supporting local branches and
staff representatives in negotiating agreements, es-
pecially the inclusion of sections that address issues
related to new technologies, such as mobile tools,
GPS data or telework.
Addressing the urgent and growing issue of monitor-
ing and surveillance of employees in the workplace,
the UK service trade union UNISON has elaborated a
detailed guide for trade unions that provides general
76
information on technologies and digital tools in this
context and suggestions for addressing the issue
through collective agreements. The guide also in-
cludes a model agreement with employers121.
4.5 Regulating the
impact of digitalisation on
occupational health and
safety
One of ver.di’s main aims in promoting collective
bargaining and supporting company-level employee
representation is to tackle psychosocial and health
and safety related impacts of new technologies and
digital work. In order to achieve this, ver.di has, over
the last few years, carried out its own action-orient-
ed research and cooperation activities such as the
Prentimo project122 and is actively promoting the
negotiation of IT health and safety risk analyses for
public service providers.
Addressing the impacts of digitalised work in the field
of health and safety has also been an important topic
for trade unions in other countries.
In Sweden for example, joint bodies dealing with
health and safety issues were established in local
and municipal government. Building on survey re-
sults regarding the potential health and safety risks
presented by the introduction of new technologies
and digitalisation projects, the Swedish public ser-
vice trade union Vision—along with other unions
in the local government sector—and the municipal
employer organisation SALAR set up a strategy for a
“healthy work life” organisation (Sunt Arbetsliv). Its
goal is to promote a good working environment and
to ensure that health and safety questions are prop-
erly addressed.
Vision also published guidelines for IT safety inspec-
tions and risk assessment. However, these are part
of a broader corpus of action principles and sugges-
tions addressing digital change processes. Here,
Vision defined seven action points regarded as cru-
cial for the planning and implementation of IT pro-
jects (see textbox beside).
PUBLIC SERVICES INTERNATIONAL
 Sweden: Vision’s Seven Actions Points for IT projects and initiatives

1. Allow staff to influence the planning, development or replacement of IT systems from start to finish.
Digital solutions must have a given place on the agenda and be a natural part of day-to-day, ongoing
collaboration and systematic work environment management. Digitalisation makes it possible to create
accessible digital tools to meet various functional requirements.

2. Ensure that managers can influence the development and procurement of IT affecting the
organisation from start to finish. Capture the ideas of managers and their staff regarding how usability
can be improved to the benefit of the organisation. The preconditions for exerting influence must be
equally good irrespective of whether the organisation is male or female dominated.

3. Ensure digital competence. Digital competence and knowledge of the organisation are two
prerequisites for obtaining an IT system that works in everyday working life. A high level of digital
competence at every level of the company reduces vulnerability. Individual training and introductions
to the digital environments in which the organisation works must be prioritised.

4. Increase digital competence among senior management. If there is a lack of competence at

strategic management level regarding the prerequisites for digitalisation, and its effects on the digital
work environment, there is a risk that the organisation will implement short-term decisions, the
consequences of which will be detrimental to both the development of the organisation and the health
of employees.

5. Update work environment knowledge to include the digital work environment. HR departments,
management and safety representatives should have the requisite knowledge to create a healthy

TRADE UNIONS AND PUBLIC SERVICE DIGITALIZATION

digital work environment.

6. Implement IT safety inspections. IT safety inspections are a method for identifying where the system
is wasting time. Procedures and agreements should be in place to quickly rectify flaws in the system. IT
safety inspections offer good support in identifying required improvements and collecting proposals
on how to do so from users. Procedures to collate improvement proposals, and the resources to take
the necessary measures, should be in place.

7. Start today and it will be more fun to go to work tomorrow! The most important thing is to begin
paying attention to the digital work environment, and the potential it offers for improvement within the
organisation. Going to work will be more enjoyable when the system supports instead of disrupts. And
there is always satisfaction in feeling that it is actually possible to influence one’s situation.

Source: VISION 2018: Digitalisation in the service of the organisation.

Similarly, in Italy, the FP-CGIL public sector federa-

tion negotiated a collective agreement covering the
central government. This agreement includes a provi-
sion to set up a joint body on innovation (“Organismo
paritetico per l’Innovazione“) that will address ques-
tions related to smart working and work-life balance,
well-being and occupational health and safety, and
the prevention of psycho-social risks, work-related
stress and burnout123.
In order to make sure that digital tools such as GPS
are used in a way that protects the safety and health
of public service employees, the AFT trade union in
the US has negotiated agreements with local service
providers, such as childcare services, for instance.

DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A LABOUR PERSPECTIVE 77

 United States: Regulation of GPS data in social services

“AFT and management agree that all employees should be treated respectfully and equitably, and that the
agency should be a responsible steward of taxpayer dollars. Should GPS systems ever be provided by the
agency to employees to take into the field, GPS data will only be requested on particular employees in the
event that there are significant concerns for the employee's safety or specific information that the employee
has not been honest about his or her whereabouts during work time, GPS data is required in response to a
warrant, subpoena, public records request or in any case where an employee has been named an alleged
perpetrator of child abuse or neglect.

Significant concerns for an employee's safety require the following:

* The employee has not answered their cell phone

* The employee has not returned to the office at their scheduled time, and

* The Executive Council level administrator over the employee's department agrees prior to the request
begin processed that there is an ongoing and imminent concern for the employee's safety.

Specific information that the employee has not been honest about his or her whereabouts exists when any
source that cannot be readily discredited reports that the employee was not where they reported they were.
In the event that GPS data is pulled under any of the circumstances discussed in this section, that information
TRADE UNIONS AND PUBLIC SERVICE DIGITALIZATION

may be used as evidence in a pre-disciplinary hearing and in that case, all other procedural protections set
out in Article 8, including the opportunity to present rebuttal evidence, will apply as usual.”

Source: Information on contract language of a collective agreement negotiated by the Federation of

Children's Service Employees, AFT Local 3143. Provided by AFT in the context of this study.

4.6 Local level bargaining this municipality of around 11,500 inhabitants intro-
duced a ‘Change Agents’ system to ensure employ-
and direct workers ee involvement in digitalisation processes. One of

involvement the union stewards of Fagforbundet, Reinfjell, was

Many cases of good practice reported by inter-
viewed union representatives with respect to the
introduction of digitalisation are related to activities
in local and municipal government. As the following
examples show, these relate to a broad spectrum of
public services.
The case of the municipality of Eidsberg in Norway
showcases good practice regarding workers in-
volvement in digitalisation projects124. In May 2018,
appointed as a Change Agent. Reinfjell holds this
role together with six other employees. None of the
Change Agents come from management, which ac-
cording to the shop steward is viewed as an advan-
tage. They act as a link between management and
the workers on the ground and come from various
occupational groups. The role of the Change Agents
is still being shaped. Some of their responsibilities
involve motivating and supporting fellow employees
regarding new forms of work. Their purpose is not
just to establish new digital systems, but to increase
the digital know-how among employees. By working

78 PUBLIC SERVICES INTERNATIONAL

side by side with employees impacted by digitalisa-
tion, the Change Agents will observe how the work-
ers are affected and call for changes in the process if
necessary. Another important part of being a Change
Agent is ensuring that all employees receive neces-
sary training.
Eidsberg participates in the national tripartite coop-
eration project as part of a group consisting of five
neighbouring municipalities. In 2020, these five
municipalities will be merged into one as part of
Norway’s ongoing structural reforms. The new mu-
nicipality will have close to 50,000 inhabitants. The
system of Change Agents has also been introduced
in the other four municipalities and will remain a tool
for employee involvement in the new municipality
starting in 2020.
The local and municipal section of the HK Kommunal
in Denmark has defined six guiding principles that
should be applied to digitalisation projects in public
services:
zz increase influence and involvement in digitalisa-
tion measures in municipalities and regions;
zz develop internal knowledge regarding digitalisa-
tion in order to better understand change pro-
cesses and their impact;
zz having gained knowledge of good data protec-
tion solutions and data ethics, share that knowl-
edge in order to develop good data security
solutions in public administration;
zz provide active guidance and information to citi-
zens, which is essential in order to maintain con-
fidence and trust in digitalised public services;
zz allow trade union members to be key players in
digitailsation initiatives and their implementation;
zz inform public service managers as to how
they should involve employees in digitalisation
projects.
DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A LABOUR PERSPECTIVE
According to representatives of the ver.di trade un-
ion in Germany, works councils or staff representa-
tives, as well and youth and trainee representatives,
have a key role to play in shaping digitalisation at the
undertaking level. They must examine whether exist-
ing company or service agreements are still sufficient
in the light of the current legal framework and techni-
cal innovations, or whether they have to be supple-
mented or completely renegotiated. ver.di also calls
on public service employers to provide the bodies
and representatives with comprehensive information
in good time, to cooperate with them intensively, to
interpret the co-determination rights broadly and to
recognise the need for upskilling.
4.7 Shaping and regulating
TRADE UNIONS AND PUBLIC SERVICE DIGITALIZATION
working time, telework and
work-life balance
Digitalisation has put many issues related to working
time (back) on the agenda of workers participation.
These issues range from the impact of automatization
and rationalisation gains on working time (reduction),
to working time conditions, regulation of ICT-related
work at home or outside normal working time, availa-
bility, monitoring and documentation of working time,
maximum hours, remuneration as well as a bundle of
aspects related to the increasingly blurred bounda-
ries between working and private life.
Issues pertaining to working time, such as telework
and work-life-balance, are certainly critical for col-
lective bargaining on the topic of the impact of dig-
italisation on public service workers. In the case of
home-based or mobile telework, many comments
pointed to a number of rules and criteria for tele-
work defined in collective agreements or company
framework agreements that were regarded as impor-
tant for 'fair telework'. The following were especially
emphasised:
79
 zz Digital or online work has to be regarded as
working time and there should be appropriate
remuneration or compensatory time-off rules;
zz There must be clear rules defining how working
time at home or away from the workplace is
counted;
zz Rules and regulations in company agreements,
regulation and collective agreements should
take into account the fact that many employees
increasingly complete most of their work outside
of the normal workplace;
zz Home-work should be based on the principle of
voluntariness and reversal of evidence: both the
worker and employer should agree, and in case
of non-agreement, the employer should provide
clear evidence as to why home-based telework
is not possible;
zz Clear rules are needed as regards the working
conditions and health and safety requirement of
telework locations;
Interviewees from public service trade unions in the
TRADE UNIONS AND PUBLIC SERVICE DIGITALIZATION
current study highlighted that model-agreements
on ICT-based mobile work or telework have proved
very helpful for negotiations with management.
Against a backdrop of high telework attractiveness
in the U.S. public administration (see section 3.5),
U.S. union, AFT, mentioned good practices in reg-
ulating telework, such as a local agreement that has
been negotiated by the Federation of Indian Service
Employees125.
The right to disconnect is one of the issues related
to digitalisation that has been most prominent in pub-
lic debate in certain countries (Germany, France and
Italy, for example). Some well-known sectoral exam-
ples have been observed in the automotive, banking,
insurance or IT sectors where agreements between
unions/works councils were concluded regard-
ing the workers’ right to disconnect during specific
times, such as the evening, at weekends or during
holidays.
The right to disconnect has also been negotiated in
the French telecommunications and postal and logis-
tics sectors, as well as in the Finnish financial service
sector, for example.
80
As highlighted above (section 3.5), the legal right
to disconnect was achieved in France thanks to the
strong public pressure organised by major trade un-
ion federations. However, the scope of the law was
initially limited to the private sector before being ex-
tended to the public sector126. In France, five ma-
jor trade unions were involved in drafting a report
on labour and digital transformation, commissioned
by the then Minister of Labour. The ‘right to discon-
nect’ was included in the report as part of a series of
recommendations and finally was turned into law in
2017. French trade union representatives in the pub-
lic sector highlighted the regulation’s key aspects as
follows:
zz Outside of certain working hours, employees
have the right not to respond to emails;
zz The employer is obliged to guarantee this right
(by establishing internal rules on working time)
or be in breach of working time regulations as
dictated by the labour law;
zz Regarding working time, it is not longer relevant
to distinguish between ‘classical’ work and work
at home;
zz Trade unions will become involved in the
development of evaluation criteria as regards the
application of the right to disconnect.
4.8 The right to training
and qualification
According to union representatives interviewed in
the context of this study, employee training and qual-
ification are key to avoid large proportions of the
workforce being left behind by digital transformation
processes. The following needs were especially
highlighted by interviewees:
zz adaptating initial and further training programmes
at company level as well as in occupational pro-
files (national, sector-level);
zz (re-) classifying pay groups according to new
digital tasks and job profiles;
PUBLIC SERVICES INTERNATIONAL
zz providing all workers with basic digital skills, in-
cluding workers less affected by digitalisation
and older workers;
zz re- und upskilling workers whose jobs are au-
tomatized in order to protect them against
redundancy;
zz integrating new occupational profiles into com-
pany specific training, skills development and
qualification programmes;
zz integrating digital tools and methods into initial
and further training courses and programmes;
zz guaranteeing a right to training for every worker.
An example of good practice was reported by the
AUPE union in Singapore where the government’s
“smart nation” project is being implemented in close
cooperation with trade unions in the public sector. In
this context, not only did several thousand public em-
ployees receive training measures such as data ana-
lytics, coding and a “Skills Future Digital Workplace
(SFDW)” course, that were implemented with AUPE’s
active involvement, but new training rights were also
agreed. Every public employee now has the right to
four hours of digital training every month as part of
an annual 100 hours of training during working time.
These are paid for by the employer. Furthermore, a
mobile app called “Learn” has been launched to pro-
vide a mobile platform for public officers to learn any-
time and anywhere. These achievements were high-
lighted as quite unique by the AUPE representatives.
As regards the protection of workers against redun-
dancies due to new technologies, the German pub-
lic service trade union ver.di highlighted good ne-
gotiation practices, namely collective agreements
on employment protection against automatization
(‘Rationalisierungschutz’) that were settled as far
back as the introduction of new technologies in the
1980s. Today, ver.di is demanding that the old agree-
ments be adjusted and updated (see textbox below).
DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A LABOUR PERSPECTIVE
Germany: Collective Agreements on
Employment Security in the context of
Automation
The 1980s saw a wave of automation in public services.
As such, the collective agreement on automation pro-
tection covering public administration at national, fed-
eral and municipal level dates back to this period. This
agreement has been in force since 1987 with the aim
of emphasising the interests of employees in change
processes and avoiding social hardship. It regulates job
security, qualification claims, income guarantees and
improved protection against redundancy. However, the
collective bargaining agreement needs to be adapted
to the new conditions emerging in the age of digitisa-
tion and the new challenges and needs that have arisen
as a result of increased technical possibilities.
Therefore, ver.di calls for a new collective agreement
that safeguards co-determination processes and em-
ployee participation. Furthermore, the right to qualifica-
tion and time sovereignty is to be guaranteed. In short,
employees should participate in digitalisation gains and
TRADE UNIONS AND PUBLIC SERVICE DIGITALIZATION
be protected from risks.
Source: ver.di. See for example the information leaf-
let “ Digitalisierung im öffentlichen Dienst durch
Tarifvertrag gestalten!”, February 2019. Available
at: https://bund-laender-nrw.verdi.de/service/the-
ma-digitalisierung/++co++2833ec54-314c-11e9-a162
-525400f67940
81
 4.9 Impact of digitalisation
on workers and trade union
rights
Digitalisation is having a strong impact on workers’
rights and has resulted in a number of challenges to
existing legal regulation. This is exemplified in topics
such as the protection of personnel data, the use of
data for performance and behaviour monitoring in
the workplace, the extensive surveillance of workers’
activities both in the workplace and in outside work.
Digitalisation also challenges existing regulation re-
garding working time, break and rest periods, holiday
rights, access to training or the workers’ right to work
in healthy and safe workplaces.
TRADE UNIONS AND PUBLIC SERVICE DIGITALIZATION

The rapid spread of new forms of employment that

often are based on flexible and precarious employ-
ment contractual arrangements in the digital econo-
my are also challenging collective labour rights such
as the freedom of association, industrial disputes
and collective bargaining rights.

The interviews with public service trade union rep-

resentatives have also shown an increasing concern
regarding the impact had on basic rights linked to
the status of employment, i.e. access to social and
labour protection or coverage by social security sys-
tems. This results from the fact that there are typical-
ly no standard contractual arrangements involved in
platform work or digitally mediated service work (e.g.
via platforms such as UBER)127.

In addition to their negative effect on employment

and workers’ social security, new digital-based forms
of employment have a broader effect on those so-
cial security systems that are based on wage-related
contributions. This was strongly emphasised by cer-
tain of our interviewees, such as the representative
of the public service trade union younion in Austria.
According to the interviewee, both new forms of
employment such as platform work and new digital

82 PUBLIC SERVICES INTERNATIONAL


business models based on the ‘sharing economy’
are undermining the established systems of social
security and welfare because they are based on tax-
ing employment rather than value-added activities.
Furthermore, activities in the sharing economy have
negative effects on local and municipal tax revenues
as they are based on the idea of avoiding tax pay-
ments. To counteract this, a resolution made by the
younion management board in 2016 requested that
the definition of employment status be rethought and
eventually remodelled to provide labour protection
for new forms of digital work and make adjustments in
the field of social security legislation128.
Similar demands have been made by other trade un-
ions in different world regions. For example, AUPE of
Singapore noted that the emergence of the gig-econ-
omy and corresponding precarious forms of work is
regarded as one of the most important labour market
challenges faced by Singapore today. It also report-
ed that issues related to precarious self-employment,
social security protection and decent wage standards
DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A LABOUR PERSPECTIVE
TRADE UNIONS AND PUBLIC SERVICE DIGITALIZATION
were currently being addressed by a tripartite working
group within the Singapore Tripartism Forum129. The
Forum was launched in 2007 by the Prime Minister
and consists of the Ministry of Manpower, the
National Trades Union Congress and the Singapore
National Employers Federation. The Forum is a plat-
form for the tripartite partners to voice concerns and
work together more effectively to overcome the more
complex challenges as regards economic, social and
labour market issues.
The trend of blurring boundaries between fully con-
tracted workers and the self-employed, as well as the
emergence of new forms of often extremely flexible
mobile work raise a number of questions as regards
individual and collective workers’ rights. However, the
need to adjust and extend existing regulation in the
light of new emerging challenges (employment sta-
tus, data protection, surveillance, health and safety,
working time, etc.) has not yet entered the broader
public debate surrounding the brave new world of
working in a digital(ised) economy. q
83

CONCLUSIONS AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
T
hough the scope of this study and of the na-
tional cases it presents is limited and should
not be regarded as wholly representative of
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
the global picture, it allows some clear messages and
common themes to emerge both in terms of the lit-
erature review and the consultations carried out with
trade union representatives.
Public service digitalisation is a global trend and is
affecting citizens, users and workers everywhere.
This trend and its impacts are likely to increase due to
technological developments such as AI and to struc-
tural mechanisms such as austerity, privatization and
tax avoidance practices that weaken the financial ca-
pacity of public institutions to invest in and build their
own in-house ability to develop pro-public digitalisa-
tion processes.
Digitalisation and new technologies have the po-
tential to improve public service quality, accessibil-
ity and offer, provided workers and users have an
opportunity to shape public policies, governance
frameworks and the workplace or user conditions
underpinning digitalisation. They can also improve
work-life balance, work autonomy and working con-
ditions. However, such positive spillovers do not ma-
terialise automatically. They require specific frame-
work conditions. If digitalisation is implemented only
for the sake of cost and headcount reductions, the
impacts on service quality and employment will be
negative.
84
5.
Digitalisation is not a panacea when it comes to en-
hancing public service quality and access for all.
In fact, when introduced in already polarised con-
texts with wide digital or educational gaps, it has
the potential to deepen these inequalities further.
Therefore, the idea that digitalisation will automatical-
ly make public services more accessible and afforda-
ble to all is a myth promoted by private businesses,
especially large digital tech corporations and global
business consultancies, which have an vested inter-
est in accessing the public service sector as it pre-
sents lucrative markets and business opportunities.
Compelling evidence from different public service
sectors show that the cost-effectiveness argument
is often simply false, as digitalisation requires large
investments that are often underestimated, create
dependency on private technology providers, and
are ultimately unsustainable for public authorities, fi-
nally benefitting contracted private service providers
or financed via the private sector, privatisation and/
or private-public partnerships.
Current trends in financing the digitalisation of pub-
lic services indicate that private businesses are
playing a strong role in the provision, delivery and
maintenance of digital hardware and software. They
are also retaining strategic knowledge essential to
quality digitalized public services, which places
them in the perfect position to provide expertise and
knowledge that is no longer available within public
service providers.
PUBLIC SERVICES INTERNATIONAL
Digitalisation often goes hand in hand with the
strengthened presence of the private, for-profit in-
terests of big tech companies. Questions relating to
the way investments in public service infrastructure
are financed (role of public budgets, private inves-
tors) and available public resources (tax incomes)
must urgently be addressed. All relevant public ser-
vices analysed in this report point to the fact that, if
not checked and framed in the interest of the public
good, digitalisation tends to drive the further privati-
sation of public services.
As shown by the examples studied in this report, in-
vestments in the digitalisation of public services and
in automation and new technologies often absorb
huge amounts of money and fail to produce the ex-
pected results and efficiency gains. This is because
unintended effects and hidden costs were not
considered.
The human impact of digitalisation in public policies
and initiatives is far too often neglected. Due to
structural imbalances and inequalities related to gen-
der, educational attainment and other criteria, such
as access to professions, training, working time and
stable types of employment contracts, digitalisation
tends to increase existing inequality in the labour
market, in particular as regards gender and qualifi-
cation status. In order to counter this trend, signifi-
cant investments and efforts should be made to sup-
port weaker and disadvantaged groups. However,
the study found little evidence for such pro-active
labour market approaches.
Contrary to the common image of a brave new digital
world, research and surveys carried out among public
service employees show that digitalised work often
has negative impacts on working conditions and
health and safety at work. Furthermore, digital work
is still work that needs to be regulated and framed by
new types of digital health and safety standards.
We know there is no stopping the rapid digitalisation
of work in the future. However, all workers must have
a voice and a mechanism to shape this impending
change of the future of work, to ensure equity and
inclusiveness, and to protect democracy and the
freedom it provides.
DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A LABOUR PERSPECTIVE
Trade unions in public service sectors have, so
far, been the only relevant actors demanding that
workers and employees not be left behind in dig-
ital transformation processes. Good practice ex-
amples illustrate the important role of trade unions,
social dialogue and collective bargaining in develop-
ing framework conditions and regulations that work
in favour of public service quality, improved working
conditions and employment security.
Trade unions across continents have developed a
similar canon of principles and demands as regards
public service digitalisation. The key aspects for
shaping good digitalised public services are:
zz Digitalisation should be regarded as a tool rather
than an end in itself. Therefore, the introduction
of new technologies and digitalised services
should be based on a clear vision of the future of
quality public services for all.
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
zz Public service employees should be involved
in digital transformation processes as early as
possible through information, consultation and
participation.
zz Digitalisation should not result in any redundan-
cies. Employment security and a right to training
and skills development for every employee in
public services, irrespective of their profession-
al background and status, should be a general
principle.
zz Digital technologies and new digital services
have lead to new forms of working conditions,
working time and employment status (e.g. tele-
work, mobile ICT work, online platforms, availa-
bility). There is a need to establish supplementa-
ry regulation as well as legal and other framework
conditions.
zz The issues pertaining to big data and algorithms,
data security and data privacy are creating a
need to develop clear and reliable framework
conditions that protect workers and define cer-
tain rights.
zz In the field of health and safety, the worrying
results of existing research and surveys put to
85
 public service employees make it necessary to
carry out risk assessments regarding digitalised
work and working conditions.
The framework conditions defining trade union in-
volvement and participation in public service dig-
italisation across the world differ significantly and
range from co-determination rights and/or a strong
role for collective bargaining agreements at national,
sectoral and local level in some countries, to a total
lack of influence in public policies and in local public
service undertakings in others.
Digitalisation has a significant impact on individual
and collective workers’ rights, for example in fields
such as health and safety, working time, personnel
data protection, the right to training as well as the
right to organise at the workplace, to engage in col-
lective bargaining and industrial disputes. And here,
the emergence of new forms of employment and
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
precarious working conditions results in the need to
adjust existing rights and develop new regulatory an-
swers in order to represent workers and employees
who are currently excluded from legal and social pro-
tection rights.
The digitalisation of public services raises funda-
mental questions about the future of the social
and welfare state and the constitution of work.
Currently many trends and symptoms indicate that
we might already be at the beginning of an age of
“surveillance capitalism” (Shoshana Zuboff), a new
global architecture of assets and power relationships
that threaten core values such as freedom, democ-
racy and privacy.
As regards the role of the workers in such a scenario,
the Argentinian public service trade union APL con-
tributed a quote by the researcher and labour law ex-
pert, Luis Ramirez:
“And the workers? They seem to be the big los-
ers, as do the trade unions. Not only because of
the destruction of employment, but also because
of the development of new forms of production,
and of non-salaried work, which grows hand in
hand with hyper connectivity applied in the world
of work. Workers without offices or factories and,
many times, without employers (at least, visible and
86
formal). With a computer we can work at home, in
the bar, or in a co-working (shared office), and if we
link ourselves to an electronic platform, we can fulfil
the dream of not having an employer (but neither do
we have rights)”.
The evidence of trade union practices documented in
this report shows that public sector trade unions are
aware of these risks surrounding the future of work,
workers’ rights and worker protection. Therefore, one
main recommendation can be made in order to avoid
such a negative scenario: strengthen the voice and
influence of employees in public service digitalisa-
tion by guaranteeing consultation and negotiation
rights, as well as strong collective agreements.
As regards good practices, the report has shown that
the greatest progress has been made in those cases
where the collective voice and influence of employ-
ees in public service digitalisation has played a strong
role, i.e. by guaranteeing consultation and negotiation
rights, as well as strong collective agreements. The
report also shows that where this is the case, there
has been most progress in advancing public services,
protecting employee rights and contributing positive-
ly to the quality and availability of public services. By
contrast, where such a social compact is lacking, the
results and impacts are much poorer and might even
worsen service provision and quality.
Thus, the report shows that trade unions are playing
a crucial role in protecting the interests of their mem-
bers and public service workers in the digitalisation
process. The evidence presented in this report also
demonstrates that trade unions are strong advocates
for the delivery of higher quality public services and
the need for digitalisation and the use of new tech-
nology to serve and support public interest while
avoiding a scenario in which public services fall un-
der the control of private business interests.
Future activities: Making sure that technological
progress will result in social progress. A few final
remarks should be made on the need for more in-
depth research and activities: Firstly, the interviews
and interaction with trade union organisations around
the world has shown that public sector trade unions
want to engage in the exchange of experience, in-
formation, and good and bad practices. While this
PUBLIC SERVICES INTERNATIONAL
study was based on a perspective that embraced all
public services, there is also a need to take a more
in-depth, sectoral approach. Due to the limited re-
sources available for this study, it would also be very
helpful—with a view to develop more suitable prac-
tices in supporting public sector trade unions—to
analyse different world regions in more detail and
equip regional trade union centres with the neces-
sary resources to do so. The focus should be placed
in particular on cases and examples where trade
unions have successfully turned technological pro-
gress into social progress in terms of worker wellbe-
ing and working conditions as well as the quality and
accessibility of public services for all.
Regional and sector-specific platforms gathering
trade union experience and demands represent a
much-needed activity that would make an important
contribution to policy debates in international and
regional institutions regarding digitalisation-related
issues such as e-government, smart cities or free
trade agreements and digitalisation (an issue that
could not be addressed in this study).
Furthermore, the study has shown that trade un-
ion representatives dealing with digitalisation and
new technologies need to develop competencies
and build know-how in order to contribute to the
debate. Representatives have voiced a strong wish
to exchange knowledge and know-how pertaining to
artificial intelligence, machine-based decision mak-
ing or technologies such as blockchain. Webinars
or online training sessions organised in cooperation
with critical experts and/or institutions could facili-
tate such exchange.
And finally, such knowledge should be used to lobby
policy and decision making and develop a stronger
critical voice regarding the significant risks public
services are facing as a result of powerful private
corporate business interests that undermine the fun-
damental, normative orientations of general interest
public services, such as equal access, serving the
public good and the people. The study has shown
that such risks are global in nature and high on the
agenda of trade unions across countries and world
regions. It would be important to address such is-
sues through political campaigns highlighting the
need to protect or even reinstate the ‘public good’
in public services.
DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A LABOUR PERSPECTIVE
Such activities should be accompanied by further
research and exchange. The following topics require
more attention, analysis and knowledge building as
well as trade union cooperation:
zz The impact and implications of public service dig-
italisation on the human rights of citizen/users of
public services. In this context, in particular the
rapidly development of AI, algorithms and ma-
chines in decision-making should be addressed.
zz The impact and implications of public service
digitalisation on the trade union rights (freedom
of association and collective bargaining) of pub-
lic service workers. As shown in this review, dig-
italisation is challenging the very notion of work
and workers/employees. Against this, there is
a need to recalibrate labour law, to rethink col-
lective bargaining and the regulation of working
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
conditions, social protection and to review prin-
ciples of collective representation and organisa-
tion. In this context, there is a need to further
research on the impact of the platform economy
on public services.
zz The strategies used by private corporate cham-
pions of digitalisation in public services and the
growing influence of private business on trade
negotiation, lobbies of national governments
and multilateral organisations and how workers’,
unions and citizens/users can build alliances to
in order to strengthen digital transformation pro-
cesses that are driven by the idea of public good
rather than by technological feasibility and busi-
ness interests.
zz Scenarios and recommendations for effective
multi-level governance of digitalisation, including
legislation, the role of social dialogue and collec-
tive bargaining. Against the global character of
digital technologies and digital initiatives across
all public sectors and the fact that such change
is often driven worldwide by the same global
companies, there needs to be a globally coordi-
nated approach of trade unions to the regulation
of digital technology use in public services. q
87
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DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A LABOUR PERSPECTIVE 91

 ANNEX:
Trade unions participating in the study
Trade Union Country Sector
1. Confederacion de Trabajadores
Argentina LRG
Municipales (CTM)
2. Asociacion del Personal
Argentina Central Government
Legislativo (APL)
3. Younion Austria Public Services in general
4. Confederacion Nacional de
Trabajadores de Seguridad Social Brazil Social Services / Health
CUT (CNTSS)
5. SFPQ-Syndicat de la Fonction
Publique et Parapublique du Québec (Canada) Regional administration
Québec
6. HK Kommunal Denmark LRG (Haderslev council)
7. HK Kommunal Denmark LRG (National perspective)
8. CFDT - Health France Health care
9. CGT FMNE France Energy
10. Ver.di Germany LRG / public services in general
11. Ver.di Germany Water Section
12. Nagpur Municipal Corporation LRG /Smart Cities
India
Employees Union (NMCEU)
13. Fagforbundet – Norwegian Norway
Union of Municipal and General Municipal and Central Government
Employees
14. AUPE Amalgamated Union of
Singapore Public administration / Civil Servants
Public Employees
15. KHMU South Korea Public Administration / Health
Central administration, water and
16. FSC CC.OO Spain
sanitation, LRG
Public Services in general, focus
17. UNISON UK
health care, female employees
18. UNITE UK Public Services in general
USA Central, federal and local
19. AFT American Federation of
administration, health and social
Teachers
services, emergency services
20. Syndicat des Medicins du
Burkina Faso Health Services
Burkina Faso

92 PUBLIC SERVICES INTERNATIONAL

Endnotes
1. For example, as 'Second Machine Age': Brynjolfsson, E and
McAfee, A 2014: The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress and
Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies; or the Fourth
Industrial Revolution or Industry 4.0: Schwab, K 2016: The
Fourth Industrial Revolution.
2. Zuboff, S 2019: The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for
a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power, London.
3. OECD 2019: Going Digital: Shaping Policies, Improving Lives, p.
18.
4. For explanations see the glossary of terms.
5. ILO: Issue brief No 6: Cluster 3: Technology for social, envi-
ronmental and economic development. Prepared for the 2nd
Meeting of the Global Commission on the Future of Work, 15–17
February 2018.
6. See for example United Nations Economic and Social Council:
Enhancing the capacity of the public sector in a fast-changing
world for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.
E/C.16/2019/2. 24 January 2019.
7. See “The impact of digitalisation on working conditions: The rise
of the gig-economy”, in: European Parliament 2016: The Future
of Work: Digitalisation in the US Labour Market. Briefing Note for
the European Parliament's Committee on Employment and Social
Affairs. Directorate General for Internal Policies, p. 26-29.
8. See: Drahokoupil/Fabo 2016: The platform economy and the
disruption of the employment relationship.
9. See Broughton et al. 2016: Precarious Employment in Europe:
Patterns, Trends and Policy Strategies.
10. See for example: Eurofound and the International Labour Office
(2017), Working anytime, anywhere: The effects on the world of
work, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg,
and the International Labour Office, Geneva.
11. Broughton et. al. 2018: The experiences of individuals in the gig
economy.
12. Voss 2018: Digitalisation and Workers Participation – What Trade
Unions, Company level Workers Representatives and Platform
Workers think.
13. EPSU Position Paper on Smart Public Services
for a Digital Age. https://www.epsu.org/article/
epsu-position-paper-smart-public-services-digital-age
14. AFT Public Employees 2002: Digital Government and
Technological Change.
15. Public Services International brings together more than 20
million workers, represented by over 700 affiliated trade union
organizations in 163 countries and territories. It is the global
trade union federation dedicated to representing and promoting
quality public services in every part of the world. PSI members,
two-thirds of whom are women, work in social services, health
care, municipal and community services, central government,
and public utilities such as water and electricity. For more infor-
mation visit http://www.world-psi.org/en
16. PSI Programme of Action, 2017 http://congress.world-psi.org/
wp-content/uploads/2017/12/EN-Vol-1-Draft-PoA-adopted-by-
Congress-Nov-2017.pdf
DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A LABOUR PERSPECTIVE
17. It is important to note here that private technological innovation
such as the development of the smart phone, augmented reality
glasses or 3D-printing has also been massively supported by
public funding, namely in the U.S. and China. See Mazzucato, M.
2013: The Entrepreneurial State.
18. http://congress.world-psi.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/
EN-Vol-1-Draft-PoA-adopted-by-Congress-Nov-2017.pdf.
19. OECD 2019: Going Digital, p. 41
20. Available at: https://publicadministration.un.org/egovkb/por-
tals/egovkb/documents/un/2018-survey/e-government%20
survey%202018_final%20for%20web.pdf.
21. The ranking is based on the UN E-Government Development
Index (EGDI), a composite indicator of three important dimen-
sions of e-government, namely: provision of online services,
telecommunication connectivity and human capacity.
22. The World Bank. Global Dataset - Of the 1 billion people without
an official proof of identity. Available at: http://blogs.worldbank.
org/ic4d/counting-uncounted-11-billion-people-without-ids.
23. See for example: India Loves Data but Fails to Protect It“, New
York Times 4.3.2018, accessible at: https://mobile.nytimes.
com/2018/04/03/opinion/india-data-privacy-biometric-aadhar.
html
24. See: Deloitte 2018: Blockchain in Public Services.
25. During 2012 and 2015 the Danish Government made it man-
datory for Danish citizens to use digital self-service for a wide
range of public service areas. Also, under the Danish Digital Post
Act, it became mandatory from November 2014 to be able to
receive Digital Post from public authorities from November 2014.
For further details see the website of the Danish Governments’
Agency of Digitisation: https://en.digst.dk/policy-and-strategy/
mandatory-digitisation/.
26. According to the current legal framework of the European Union,
it is forbidden that decisions be taken by machines.
27. ‘TravelBot’ is an AI-powered Facebook Messenger chat-
bot established by the Travel for London (TFL) government
agency in June 2017. This Messenger bot is intended to help
people with services like bus arrivals, route status, service
updates (bus/rail), maps, and even contacting a human agent
if a user would like to access further details. See: https://
tfl.gov.uk/info-for/media/press-releases/2017/june/
tfl-launches-new-social-media-travelb
28. The Facebook Messenger chatbot is run by the Ministry of
Communication and Information of Singapore. The chatbot
extracts the information from the government dedicated portal
that is already in place for public use., ‘Gov.sg’ - https://www.
facebook.com/gov.sg/
29. See Royal Geographical Society: Digital Divide in the UK.
Available online: https://21stcenturychallenges.org/
what-is-the-digital-divide/
30. For the complete story of this example see: https://www.jour-
naldemontreal.com/enquetes/sagir
31. See for example: Hayat, P (2016): Smart Cities – A global
Perspective.
93
 32. See: https://dmicdc.com/.
33. United Nations: E-Government Survey 2018. Gearing
E-Government to support transformation towards sustainable
and resilient societies.
34. See for example Deloitte (‘Smart Cities Africa’, available at:
https://www2.deloitte.com/za/en/pages/public-sector/
articles/smart-cities.html); Telefonica (‘A path to smart cities
in Latin America’, https://www.gsma.com/iot/wp-content/
uploads/2012/05/Luciano-Alakija-GSMA-Smart-City.pdf),
Siemens (‘Smart Cities – Data driven Cities’, https://www.
siemens.com/innovation/en/home/pictures-of-the-future/
infrastructure-and-finance/smart-cities-trends.html). On
specific cases see: Bill Gates is building his own Smart City,
https://www.businessinsider.de/bill-gates-smart-city-
pros-cons-arizona-urban-planners-2017-11?r=US&IR=T;
‘Google and Toronto: smart city, dump deal’, https://
www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/05/
the-guardian-view-on-google-and-toronto-smart-city-dumb-deal
35. The following information is based on available literature on the
topic as well as an interview with the president of the employee
trade union of the Nagpur Municipality carried out in December
2018.
36. When it comes to source of financing, most of the Smart City
plans envisage around 70 per cent of the total outlay to be
funded by the Central and State Government, either through
the Smart City Mission or through other Smart City schemes.
The challenge lies in the balance 30 per cent which is supposed
to be funded by the private sector either through public private
partnership (PPP) projects or through issue of municipal bonds /
similar instruments.
37. Housing and Land Rights Network: India’s Smart City mission.
Smart for whom? Cities for whom?
38. Launched in 2013 in the context of the Governments Vision 2030
to become Africa's leading hub for innovation and digital tech-
nologies, the results achieved so far are quite sobering. See for
example the article in Daily Nation of December 2018: https://
www.nation.co.ke/business/Why-Kenya-Konza-technocity-is-
dead-in-the-water/996-4890120-qxopp7z/index.html.
39. See: ‘The aim is to automate us: Welcome to the age of surveil-
lance capitalism’, Guardian, 20 Jan 2019.
40. See: https://www.barcelona.cat/digitalstandards/en/
free-soft/0.2/introduction
41. See: https://www.barcelona.cat/digitalstandards/manifesto/0.2/
42. See for example: Hall, D 2015: Why public-private partner-
ships don't work. The many advantages of the public alterna-
tive. PSIRU London. Report commissioned by Public Services
International (PSI). See also the "People over Profit" online
library: https://peopleoverprof.it/.
43. This also includes technologies and services connected to smart
meters and smart grids. The EU social partners in the electricity
sector, EPSU and EURELECTRIC agreed on a joint position on
smart meters in 2010: https://www.epsu.org/article/joint-po-
sition-smart-meters. This was based on a survey carried out by
EPSU amongst national members across Europe in 2010 that
revealed a mixed picture of trade union involvement and partici-
pation in decisions regarding the introduction of smart metering.
Generally, trade union involvement was regarded as weak in
the context of introducing new technologies. Furthermore, the
survey found that cost-benefit analyses took no account of the
94
consequences that the introduction of smart meters could have
on employment. EPSU also published a position on smart grids in
2009. See: EPSU Opinion on ERGEG Public Consultation Paper on
Smart Grids, available at: https://www.epsu.org/hu/node/5564.
As noted by utility experts of PSI Global in a comment to this
report, smart metering in developing countries is illustrating
also other impacts and consequences in particular for poorer
households: Smart or prepaid meters are used to collect fees and
consequently cut off those citizens that are not able to top-up
their meters/cards.
44. Google in recent years has invested heavily in machine learning
and AI applications that are easy to handle and thus attractive
for clients that lack specific knowledge in the field. The AI
platform is linked with a number of related services that Google
offers for example "document understanding AI services", which
analyze scanned or digitally available documents and translate
them into structured data.
45. ver.di: Digitalisation in water sector. State of affairs, questions,
calls. Available at: https://ver-und-entsorgung.verdi.de/the-
men/digitalisierung/++co++8cf093da-b286-11e8-964c-52540
0f67940.
46. See for example: https://www.theepochtimes.com/argenti-
na-launches-blockchain-for-public-services_2608919.html.
47. As documented in a in a report summarizing results of the ver.di
conference on digitalisation and public welfare in April 2018, see:
https://www.verdi.de/themen/digitalisierungskongresse/kon-
gress-2018. Digital blood sugar metering works with a glucose
sensor that substitutes the routine fingertip puncturing to meas-
ure blood glucose. The sensor on the upper arm measures the
glucose content and a scan with a digital radar shows the value.
48. https://www.quebec.ca/sante/vos-informations-de-sante/
carnet-sante-quebec/
49. In fact, due to the high investment costs, the Da Vinci surgery
system in Germany has been introduced in particular in large
public hospitals.
50. See for example: Studie im Fachjournal Lancet; report about
a study in Australia: https://www.srf.ch/news/schweiz/
da-vinci-roboter-teure-hightech-operationen-mit-ungewis-
sem-nutzen; or in Germany: https://www.zeit.de/2017/01/
chirurgieroboter-davinci-operation-arzt
51. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jul/09/
giving-google-private-nhs-data-is-simply-illegal
52. See: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/15/
warning-of-nhs-cyber-attack-was-not-acted-on-cybersecurity.
53. See: AlgorithmWatch 2019: Automating Society.
54. https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/pc2rfv/
artificial?w=4
55. AFT 2018: Resolution “Future of Teaching and Technology”.
56. See: CSQ: Digital technology: meeting the challenge, providing
the support. CSQ survey results. Available at: http://www.lacsq.
org/fileadmin/user_upload/csq/documents/dossiers/numeri-
que/1718-236_FeuilletSommetNum_EN_web.pdf
57. See for example on Uganda: https://africandailyvoice.com/
en/2019/02/11/uganda-police-force-undergoes-digitalisation/.
58. See for example: https://www.france24.com/en/20181026-
armed-drones-iris-scanners-chinas-high-tech-security-gadgets.
59. EPSU 2016: Position Paper on Smart Public Services for a Digital
Age, p. 1.
60. Deloitte South Africa 2017: Automation in Public Sector.
PUBLIC SERVICES INTERNATIONAL
 Automation reduces costs and transforms public service. Web-
article, https://www2.deloitte.com/za/en/pages/operations/
articles/automation-in-the-public-sector.html (accessed January
2019).
61. ‘Leapfrogging’ means making rapid and disruptive (in contrast to
evolutionary and incremental) progress.
62. Brookings Institute 2018: Harnessing Africa’s Digital Potential.
New Tools for a New Age.
63. See: Krcmar et al. 2018: eGovernment Monitor 2018 – Nutzung
und Akzeptanz digitaler Verwaltungsangebote – Deutschland,
Österreich und Schweiz im Vergleich.
64. These figures are based on survey results published in the report
“IT in Practice” by Ramboll. See Ramboll 2018: IT I Praksis.
65. Examples documented in EPSU 2018: How trade unions can use
collective bargaining to uphold and improve working conditions
in the context of digital transformation of public services.
66. Quoted from: https://africandailyvoice.com/en/2019/01/25/
ugandan-president-calls-caution-ai-accelerating-african-devel-
opment/.
67. EPSU 2016: Data protection, public services and workers’ rights.
Appendix to the EPSU Position Paper on Smart Public Services for
a Digital Age, adopted by the EPSU Executive Committee on 19
April 2016.
68. The principle that a citizen should provide their information to
public authorities only once, allowing this information to then be
saved and shared between all levels of government.
69. See: https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/regionale/fyn/
fremtiden-ulovlig-database-om-patienter-afgoeres-i-dag
70. You can read more about this case in English here: https://www.
itgovernance.eu/blog/en/norwegian-health-authority-hacked.
https://www.newsinenglish.no/2017/05/31/health-board-fired-
after-it-scandal/. On the cancelling of the agreement see: http://
norwaytoday.info/finance/bins-billion-agreement-outsourcing/
71. Powles / Hodson 2017: Google DeepMind and healthcare in an
age of algorithms.
72. See also: Thomas L. Madsen, HK Stat Denmark: Digitalisation
and Centralisation of the Danish Tax Administration – the good,
the bad and the real ugly effects seen from a public sector
union perspective – and a picture of the future in other areas?
Presentation held at the EPSU Seminar on Digitalisation, 13 June
2016, ÖGB, Vienna.
73. See Lethbrigde 2016: Public Services, democracy and digitalisa-
tion See also Taghreed 2016: The UK's National Programme for
IT: Why was it dismantled?
74. See: Powell 2016: PPPs and the SDGs: Don’t believe the hype.
See also various documents and news articles in the online
library People over Profits: https://peopleoverprof.it/
75. See: Vérification de l’optimisation des ressources – Rapport du
Vérificateur général du Québec à l’Assemblée nationale pour l’an-
née 2012-2013, automne 2012, chapitre 5 : Contrats de services
professionnels liés au traitement de l’information, Available at:
https://vgq.qc.ca/fr/fr_publications/fr_rapport-annuel/fr_2012-
2013-VOR-Automne/fr_Rapport2012-2013-VOR-Automne-
Chap05.pdf.
76. See: https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/politique/politique-
quebecoise/201211/29/01-4599210-rapport-du-vg-des-
contrats-informatiques-mal-geres.php.
77. Younion: Arbeiten 4.0: Den digitalen Wandel fair gestalten!
78. Interview with UNISON in the context of this study. See also:
DIGITALIZATION AND PUBLIC SERVICES: A LABOUR PERSPECTIVE
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/15/
warning-of-nhs-cyber-attack-was-not-acted-on-cybersecurity.
79. Based on Degryse 2016: Digitalisation of the economy and its
impact on the labour markets.
80. See: Guardian: Robots could replace 250,000 UK pub-
lic sector workers, 6 February 2017. Available at: https://
www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/feb/06/
robots-could-replace-250000-uk-public-sector-workers.
81. See: France 24: French public sector workers strike against
Macron reforms, 22 May 2018. Available at: https://www.
france24.com/en/20180522-french-public-sector-workers-
strike-against-macrons-reforms.
82. The so-called Lord Darzi Report. See: https://www.ippr.org/
news-and-media/press-releases/embrace-full-automation-to-
release-time-to-care-in-the-nhs-and-social-care-says-top-sur-
geon-lord-darzi.
83. The Darzi Report identified communicating medical notes, book-
ing appointments and processing prescriptions among the many
activities that should be carried out through digital technology.
Researchers have calculated the value of the time that may be
released through automation of the current tasks in different
roles, freeing up professionals to focus on caring. Potential time
releases are quite significant, e.g. more than 50% in support to
clinical staff; 35% in ambulance staff, 30% for nurses and health
visitors; 30% in infrastructure support. As regards job roles, the
report estimates that automation might reduce the amount of
time needed for managerial work by 36%, in the case of regis-
tered nurses by 29% and by 24% for direct care work activities.
For more details see source in the footnote above.
84. See: Berg et al.2018. Digital labour platforms and the future of
work.
85. Based on a summary of the survey received from a representative
of Fagforbundet. A Norwegian version of the report can be found
on Agenda’s website: https://tankesmienagenda.no/notater/
digitalisering-av-offentlig-sektor/.
86. Nygren 2012 Narratives of ICT and Organisational change.
87. See for example: ECORYS and Danish Technological Institute
(2016) The impact of ICT on job quality: evidence from 12
job profiles. A study focussing on two public services (public
employment services and homecare) that has been commis-
sioned by EPSU is based on this approach. See: Peña-Casas et al.
(2018): Impact of digitalisation on job quality in public services.
Homecare and Public Employment Services.
88. EU-OSHA 2018: Foresight on new and emerging occupational
safety and health risks associated digitalisation by 2025 — Final
report.
89. Peña-Casas et al. 2018: Impact of digitalisation on job quality in
public services. Home care and Public Employment Services.
90. Kommunal 2019: Welfare technologies for health, safety and
professional development.
91. SFPQ 2016: LES CENTRES D’APPELS DANS LA FONCTION
PUBLIQUE ET PARAPUBLIQUE DU QUÉBEC.
92. See for example the NYT article: "Don’t get too comfort-
able at your desk". Available at: https://www.nytimes.
com/2017/10/06/business/the-office-gets-remade-again.html
93. See: http://www.governing.com/topics/transportation-infra-
structure/gov-workers-telework-public-transportation-com-
mute.html
94. See: https://news.gallup.com/businessjournal/206033/
95
 america-coming-workplace-home-alone.aspx
95. See: https://grandsorganismes.gouv.qc.ca/a-consulter/actual-
ites-et-evenements/detail/news/mise-en-ligne-de-la-presenta-
tion-mobiliser-le-personnel-des-centres-dappels-en-optimisant-
leurs-con/
96. See explanation in the glossary of terms.
97. See Black/ Spitz-Oener A. 2007: Explaining Women's Success:
Technological Change and the Skill Content of Women's Work.
98. De Groen et al. 2017: Impact of digitalisation and the on-demand
economy on labour markets and the consequences for employ-
ment and industrial relations.
99. Berger/ Frey 2016: Structural Transformation in the OECD:
Digitalisation, Deindustrialisation and the Future of Work.
100. Arntz et al. 2016: The Risk of Automation for Jobs in OECD coun-
tries: A Comparative Analysis.
101. See for example Berg et al. 2018: Digital labour platforms and
the future of work.
102. AFT Public Employees 2002: Digital Government and
Technological Change. The Impact on Public Employees and
Quality Public Services. The taskforce involved seven trade union
members from six different federal states and from a variety of
public services and job classifications.
103. See for example: https://www.verdi.de/themen/digitalisierung.
104. EPSU contribution to public EU Consultation on “Transformation
Health and Care in the Digital Single Market“ (10 Oct 2017),
available at: https://www.epsu.org/sites/default/files/article/
files/EPSU_CONTRIBUTION_E_HEALTH.pdf
105. http://www.world-psi.org/es/el-futuro-del-trabajo-en-la-ad-
ministracion-publica-nacional-el-caso-argentino
106. See: https://www.apldigital.org.ar/new/index.php/
prensa/1315-observatorio-del-futuro-del-trabajo
107. Interview with a representative of APL in November 2018.
108. For example, VISION: “IT i Välfärdens Tjänst (IT in the Service of
Welfare)”, 2014.
109. In the Norwegian context, collective agreements usually consist
of two parts: A basic agreement that governs the relationship
between organisations and predominant rules. This national
tripartite dialogue programme can be seen as an extension of the
basic agreement. The other part of the collective agreement is a
national agreement regulating wages and working conditions for
a certain industry or a sector. The national tripartite cooperation
agreement on digitalisation is not concerned with bargaining or
negotiations. It is social dialogue at national and local level.
110. The actual agreement (published on the Ministry’s website,
in Norwegian): https://www.regjeringen.no/contentassets/
c80976429a464896bbd2de4d3598c89f/avtale_digital_kom-
petanse_kommunene.pdf. Article in English on the signing of
the agreement: http://www.world-psi.org/en/norwegian-mu-
nicipal-union-signs-tripartite-agreement-worker-involve-
ment-and-social-dialogue-public
111. The website created and edited by the three parties on national
level: www.komdigi.no.
112. See also: http://www.world-psi.org/en/norwegian-mu-
nicipal-union-signs-tripartite-agreement-worker-involve-
ment-and-social-dialogue-public.
113. The co-determination laws guarantee employees participation in
particular in the the regulation of working conditions as well as
(to a lesser extend) in economic planning and decision making at
company level.
96
114. See also: http://www.world-psi.org/en/node/10133
115. Regarding the situation of municipal workers rights in Argentina
see also the report of a joint CTM and PSI meeting in the context
of the International Labour Conference 2017: http://www.
world-psi.org/en/ctm-and-psi-take-municipal-workers-un-
ion-rights-fore-international-labour-conference-2017.
116. See: https://unitetheunion.org/media/1236/draft-new-technol-
ogy-agreement-october-2016.pdf.
117. A model form of such a "New Tech Agreement" can be down-
loaded on the UNITE website: https://unitetheunion.org/
work-voice-pay/work-voice-pay-guides/
118. Utilise la Transformation Numérique pour Changer le Travail – Un
Guide UGICT-CGT. http://www.ugict.cgt.fr/publications/guides/
utiliser-le-numerique-pour-changer-le-travail--le-guide-qvt
119. See: https://www.boeckler.de/pdf/mbf_bvd_hintergrund_e-gov-
ernment.pdf
120. For further information see: https://www.verdi.de/themen/
digitalisierung
121. UNISON 2018: Bargaining on monitoring and surveillance
workplace policies, July 2018. Available at: https://www.unison.
org.uk/content/uploads/2018/08/Monitoring-and-surveillance-
at-work-08-2018.pdf
122. Prentimo stands for "Preventive Shaping of Mobile Work".
See: https://innovation-gute-arbeit.verdi.de/ueber-uns/
forschungsprojekte/prentimo
123. ”Contratto Colletivo di Lavoro. Comparto Funzioni Centrali.
Periodo 2016-2018”. Available at: https://www.aranagenzia.it/
attachments/article/8804/CCNL%20definitivo%20Funzioni%20
centrali%20triennio%202016-2018_firmato_12-2-2018.pdf
124. The information on this case was delivered by Fagforbundet in
the context of this study.
125. Contract language from the agreement negotiated by Federation
of Indian Service Employees, AFT, Local 4524. Provided by AFT in
the context of this study.
126. For further information, see: https://www.euro-
found.europa.eu/fr/publications/article/2014/
france-a-legal-right-to-switch-off-from-work.
127. See for example: Broughton et al. 2018: The experiences of
individuals in the gig economy; Forde et al. 2017: The Social
Protection of Workers in the Platform Economy; Prassl, J. 2018:
Collective Voice in the Platform Economy.
128. Younion 2016: Arbeiten 4.0: Den digitalen Wandel fair gestalten.
129. https://www.tripartism.sg/home.
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